Cloud Light

Epiphany was January 6, but I'm still pondering it and probably will continue to do so, because watching for sparks of light is an Epiphany practice.

In a short reflection piece for Alive Now! called "Looking for Christ in the Boring," Sarah Parsons gives the short version of one of her "ordinary, boring days" and then retells it, with an eye for the Christ moments she encountered.

She writes: These Christ-sightings are an Epiphany message for me. Christmas says Christ is here, born into the world. Epiphany says it's up to us to find him, and it may not be easy. We may have to walk a long road, follow strange guidance, and encounter Herod-like dangers. . .When I expect Christ to enter my day with lots of fanfare and, at the end of the day, bemoan that 'nothing happened,' I wonder if I am getting Christ wrong somehow. Christ originally entered the world in pretty ordinary human style, even more humbly than most humans do."

Our invitation is to stay awake, pay attention, notice the ways that God is present in the place where we are, in all its ordinariness.

In what started out as a gray Indiana day, my attention was caught by the changes in the sky, from the midday sun beginning to break through the clouds in the picture above, making me think of a dark-winged angel, to the blue skies and fleecy skies of the later afternoon, catching the light of the setting sun.

There were other moments of light as well, of encounter and relationship, but those are not always mine to share. Read Sarah's full article for her examples of ways she encountered the light of Christ in her boring day, once she opened her eyes to look.