Looking Back at Epiphany by Marilyn Wray |
Epiphany is that season when we celebrate the ways that God reveals himself. Recently I thought about my father's rose garden at our home in Pointe Claire. He loved roses especially the variety that was variegated in its colour. Roses take a lot of care. The climate, soil conditions and care from the gardener are important for their development. I remember his favourite. When the rose bud first appeared it was tight with red coloured edges and markings on the outside of the petals dominant and visible to the eye. What was inside was hidden. Only the warmth of the sun mixed with the right amount of gently falling rain would encourage the flower to open and reveal its center. When those conditions were right, the center would courageously open to show its bright yellow colour, and so the full flower was yellow, edged with red very beautiful. My father used to love watching the rose gradually grow to its mature self day after day. He was also a photographer and would take many pictures to capture each stage. Not all of his roses would develop fully. Sometimes the weather would create harsh driving rain, and some of the roses would be driven off their stems, battered into the ground, still in their tight buds, and their beautiful centers would never be seen by us. It is as if the rose were too afraid to hang on for better times when the sun would coax it open. So much beauty would never be seen, except to God. We know that God's beauty is in creation, that his love created the flower and is in the flower. Our eyes are limited in what they see. Our hearts are limited in what we fear. Now we see through a glass darkly a limited vision of the love of God and a fearfully limited understanding of God in ourselvesuntil that day when we come face to face with the Creator God and finally see the love we were too afraid to believe. |
