Epiphany: A Star and a Dream

Last updated on: January 4, 2014 at 4:43 pm by Elizabeth Nordquist

Epiphany: A Star and a Dream 2014-01-04T16:43:25-08:00 Elizabeth Nordquist

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Those who were Wise started out with mind and heart fixed on a Star. They followed that Star that arose in the East to the place where the Light was born, and they were prompted to worship, to open their hearts and give the treasures they had. And then they followed the Dream that showed them a different route by which they could reach home. The story in Matthew of those Wise Ones still teaches me again every year. I want to follow the Star of Light, and Listen to the Dream of Direction.

I am grateful for the Light Star that leads me. Jesus asserts that he is the Light of the World, and that those who follow him will not walk in darkness. And I find myself grateful at this turn of the year that the Light keeps shining, and cannot be put out. It comes in the Mystery of the Incarnation, which we have just celebrated, God coming to earth in a form that people could and did recognize, relate to, trust and follow. Light comes in sacred text–familiar, ancient, and memorized and brand new, just discovered. Light comes in people of faith, gathered side by side or connected by invisible threads of social media; Light increases when people share it. In rehearsing the Blessings of the past year on the day of New Year’s Eve, I unearthed the multitude of ways in which the Light had gotten in–in faithful truth-telling, in healing hands, in courageous mending of fences, and in freely given Love. The Light keeps leading to the Christ-like ways of being in the world–to worship. to open my heart and give back what i have been given.

And I am grateful for Dreams. I have not been given the gift of premonitory or predictive night visions. But I sit with people in spiritual direction who often bring their Big Dreams into sacred conversation, dreams in which Wisdom directs them from within, grounding them in a clear understanding that they belong to the Holy, that they are Beloved, or that they are being called in a new direction. I do recognize the presence of that kind of Wisdom in my life, bringing me insight, awareness, warning, a sense of aha! or a new recognition of a way I need to do. The Light that leads my way comes from the Spirit who lives within, rather than from an external star. However, it is just as trustworthy warm and illuminating, and takes me where I should go or diverts me to go home by another way. Often, it reminds me of what I have read in Scripture or have heard proclaimed or has been shared from another’s heart. And it saves me, heals me, and brings me closer to who I truly am, all I was meant to be.

I see the year ahead as a journey, accompanied by the Bright and Morning Star ahead of me and the Dreamweaver Spirit within me to the places I am called to be where I can glorify God and enjoy god forever!

While outward signs the star displays, an inward light the Lord conveys and urges them, with tender might, to seek the giver of the light. O Jesus, while the star of grace impels us on to seek your face, let not our slothful hearts refuse the guidance of your light to use. (Charles Coffin, 1736)

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