It can take a lot of work to be astonished. It’s easier to go from one thing to the next in our daily lives than to do the hard work of slowing down, paying attention, and thanking God for the striated colors in the sky at sunset or the way someone who owed us nothing has served us. But Epiphany--the church season we find ourselves in from now until we begin Lent in February--invites us to do just that.

The word “epiphany” means “to cause to appear,” or “to make manifest.” We can think of it as a certain kind of realization, like Benjamin Franklin flying his kite in a thunderstorm or the great idea that you get when you’re taking a shower. And in a sense, that’s exactly what we’re talking about in this season: Something appears that wasn’t there before, and everything changes. It may dawn slowly or come in an instant, but whatever appears in its wake means things are different.

In Epiphany, the church takes time to be astonished. We are reminded of the arrival of Jesus and his glory, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), as we think about the Magi who arrived to Jesus’s birthplace with little idea of what, and who, they were about to see. Over time, Jesus’ glory would be made manifest to many people: to the poor to whom he gave hope; to the wealthy who needed to learn dependence; to the sick who he healed; to the outcasts he included. In Epiphany, we train our eyes a bit more carefully to see the glory of the Lord around us.