epiphany

The word epiphany has several meanings, the one that closer describes this writing is this: a sudden, intuitive perception of, or insight into, reality or the essential meaning of something, often initiated by some simple, commonplace occurrence. Or it is a literary work or section of a work presenting such a moment of revelation and insight.

Mark Twain once said: “A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.” When I see the mental picture of the action that must have inspired this statement, I feel that this could possibly be called an epiphany. Or at least it would be epiphanous in direction and the pain involved would certainly inspire a person not to do it again.

Please be aware that this writing is not to make light of more serious spiritual experiences because this type of thing will be herein described as well. But after pondering this meaning of the word, it occurred to me that these things are an almost daily happening with me – and sometimes several times in a day. Of course the things deemed and/or defined as epiphanic might vary from person to person.

Sunday morning when I went outside to check the weather before going to church, one of these experiences occurred. Standing just outside the garage door, I looked skyward to check the clouds and instead my eyes stopped on a mockingbird perched atop the security light pole out by the end of the driveway. As I listened, this small being of flight was singing several of the songs in his repertoire and doing an excellent job of it.

At closer listening, the whole area was alive with bird songs, but this feathered one was all I could see at that moment. As I watched, this bird would flap its wings and jump upward about three feet and then land again at the same location. I took this one to be a male trying to impress a nearby unseen female with his song and antics and/or dance – this or just expressing the joy of spring and being alive.

My inward amazement grew as I also glanced around the small portion of the neighborhood I could see and the spring colors, even the green of the new leaves, was almost breathtaking. The many colors in other yards were great but the stark white of our dogwood in full bloom was a soul stirring sight as well.

All these things together caused a rush of emotions and even a glimmer of spiritual insight about the awesomeness of God’s creation and how he made the natural parts of this planet to continue to renew itself year after year. This small revelation and perception put a huge WOW right in the middle of my day and week.

I have had epiphanies that were smaller in scope, like those caused by multi-flavored, multi-elemented and multi-layered desserts. Then others were much larger, like marriage, the birth of our children and my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. But this experience was just the thing I needed for that day and according to my understanding of the meaning of the word, it can truly be called an epiphany. ec