Watching the Lightning

(This is also the February newsletter article for my church...two birds, one stone, that kind of thing...)

     Growing up, I loved to look out of the window or sit in the carport during thunderstorms at night, watching the lightning.  I enjoyed watching the lightning light up the sky for that one fraction of a second of brilliance.  It was as if there was a flash of daylight, in an instant.  I still enjoy watching thunderstorms - though with the proliferation of trees around our parsonage, there's a bit more trepidation in my watching nowadays.  But that moment, the all-too-brief flash of daylight, that is fascinating, thrilling to watch.

     As we continue the season of Epiphany, we are reminded that we have those moments spiritually as well.  We have moments when the presence of God and the peace of the Holy Spirit lights up the skies of our lives with complete light and brilliance.  The word "epiphany" basically means a "sudden appearance of knowledge."  It's an "aha!" moment - that moment when the pieces fall into place, when insight from the Spirit lights up our lives.  Those are wonderful moments to be treasured.  God teaches us about His nature and His will in those moments.  God might also teach us about ourselves.  We must be ready and watchful for these epiphanies. 

     During Epiphany, we celebrate that God has fully revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.  If you want to know what God is like, look to Jesus.  If you desire to know who God cares about, look to Jesus.  If you want to know how God moves and works in the world, look to Jesus.  God has been revealed to us in the Epiphany of Jesus Christ.  And so, in Jesus, we can see the brilliance of God, the bright light of His love and grace.  And much like the lightning that I enjoy watching, sometimes God appears most dramatically and most splendidly in our fiercest storms and our darkest nights.  The darkness of our worst storms might serve to reveal the brightness of God's glory and grace.  Are you in the midst of a storm?  Keep your eyes open for those bright flashes of God's presence, love, and grace, which might illumine your struggles. 

     This side of eternity, it's just a glimpse, however.  I believe that when we see God face-to-face, when the eternal life given to us through the grace of Jesus Christ becomes our complete reality, we will be fully alive in that brilliance.  Until then, we wait and watch, even in the midst of our own storms, for those flashes of daylight, for the brilliance and splendor of God's grace.

Grace and Peace to you through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Wes