The lessons for today close out the Epiphany season with one manifestation of the Divine after another. First there is the fiery chariot that the prophet Elisha recognizes as the hand of God taking Elijah home. The psalmist hears God speaking through nature: "Our God will come and will not keep silence; before him there is a consuming flame and round about him a raging storm." The apostle Paul sees the glory of God manifest in the face of Jesus Christ. And lastly, we have the transfiguration of Jesus accompanied by the Hebrew giants Moses and Elijah, in the presence of Peter, James, and John. Awesome experiences, all.

God continues to manifest the Divine Presence throughout the world, demonstrating the power of Love at work in the here and now. Because our worldview is so different from that of the ancients, God reaches us in other ways that we can recognize once our hearts are open to receive and accept the reality of the Divine Presence in our ordinary lives. Epiphanies may come to us in our everyday life situations getting our attention with emotional flags like the examples from our scripture today, such as being unexpected, stunning, terrifying, revealing, astounding, awe-inspiring, calling for response. We may feel the need to hold an epiphany close to our heart for awhile, maybe to journal with what it has to say to us before we can trust the sense of truth that pervades the manifestation calming our heart, bringing us peace.

Pause and think about how we recognize God's epiphanies in our lives today, things like a flash of understanding, a sudden insight, a revelatory experience, something completely out of the blue stunning us with its amazing grace. You probably remember other kinds of examples in your own life. Think back over the last six weeks of the Epiphany season to a personal epiphany you have experienced. Sit with it a bit, and when you're ready tell a friend about it, how you felt when it happened, how you recognized the manifestation of God.