Epiphany Today

Today we celebrate "Epiphany"..... Traditionally thought of as the day the Magi visited the baby Jesus....but more than that, meaning 'appearance' or 'manifestation' intended to celebrate the "shining forth" or revelation of God in human form, to the Gentiles, in the person of Jesus. Some Christians commemorate the visitation of the Magi to the child Jesus on this day, while others use the day to commemorate the baptism of Jesus as an adult. It is also called Theophany, especially by those commemorating Christ's baptism.

Through all of this it has come to be known as the "Ah ha" day. The day when we have an extreme amount of understanding about something.

The Magi are an interesting group. They are still in existence today. Dr. Westphall, of the Vietnam Veterans National Memorial in Angel fire, New Mexico has been a member of this same sect for nearly 80 years. He truly was a "Wise Man", in accordance with those that we have known from before. As design would have it, each day on January 6, Dr. Westphall would make it to my home to have coffee and conversation with me and we always talked about things of "importance". He truly was a gift to me of the Magi.

So what is my Epiphany today? Today the form of my thinking takes on a different course. I am listening to the "Last Samurai" and it tells me that the word "samurai" means "to serve". So how am I serving today and who am I serving and what am I serving?

How I am serving today takes the form of allowing myself to be at peace and hence allowing the rest of the world to be that way also. Today I am free of past guilt's, past assumptions, past expectations, past sorrows, past hurts, and just plain old "past". This is such a better place to be. I am grateful!

Who am I serving today? I am reminded of Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol". At the end he says, "Mankind is my business." And like so many before me I choose to serve "mankind".

What am I serving today. Using the Dahli Lama's creed "My true religion is kindness." I choose to serve mankind with that edict. With kindness. Just plain ol' kindness.

So my Epiphany today is about being who I am....nothing more and nothing less. Just being the person I was created to be.

That makes me smile..... all over. :)