Maybe we have things backwards.
The first time I thought that, I was lying in a sleeping bag on the ground under the big sky of Montana.
For seventeen years, I had been surrounded by trees. My view of the horizon had always been limited by leaves and branches. But now, here, lying on the plains, the sky was so big! The nighttime was immense. I tossed and turned on the hard dirt, feeling exposed. I awoke often to marvel at so many stars. When I turned my head all the way to the right, there was sky. When I turned my head all the way to the left, there was sky. When I rested my head to look upward, there was sky.
Then something began to lighten the darkness. I fell back asleep. When I awoke, a huge star had come up in the east. It was the star that we call the sun. The sky was ablaze with light! That’s when I realized: we have it backwards. Day is not interrupted by night. It is the night that is the constant—always there, beyond the sunlight. The night is the given. The day is the surprise. We look at it backwards.
Maybe the magi looked at things backwards, too. They were among the scholars of their day. But theirs may have been a minority opinion. That star in the east heralds the birth of a king? In the land of the Jews? Not likely. Even if they have a king, they are the Chosen People. Their king would not come for you, a Gentile. Don’t make the trip. You will only be disappointed.
What did they find? O star of wonder, star of might, star with royal beauty bright! They fell to their knees in wonder. Maybe God does things backwards, not as we expect.
Consider/Discuss
- What we can see and touch and measure—that is what constitutes scientific “reality.” Some who work in that realm tell us that there is no other reality. But perhaps that majority opinion contains a confirmation bias. If they’re all looking at reality in the same way, maybe that becomes the common consensus? What if that is backwards? What if that which we cannot see and touch and measure is the ultimate reality? How might that be an epiphany?
- The feast of the Epiphany celebrates the in-breaking of light. The darkness is the given; the light is the surprise. This week, how could we allow ourselves to be amazed by the radiance of created light? By watching the snow glisten, the stars twinkle, and the rising sun in the morning? How does the light that we see lead us into the glory of the One whom we cannot see?
Living and Praying with the Word
God, sometimes you seem to revel in doing things backwards. The psalmist says that you watch over the poor and the needy, those who don’t really matter in the power structures of the world. You set the planets in the night and then give us the sun at just the right distance to make our crops grow. You surround us with just the right amount of warmth when so many planets are too warm or too cold.
Help us to receive your backward surprises this day! Set us ablaze! You have come in glory to dispel the darkness of our lives. We may not be your Chosen People. But you came to shine your radiance on us as well. Glory to you, Light of the world!