Today is Epiphany. The word means “to shine the light upon.” Most literally, turning on the light in darkness. More metaphorically–we use the word to refer to a truthful insight that enlightens our error or ignorance. “I’ve had an epiphany” means I’ve learned something new–or I see something differently. It’s almost always exclamatory–not a mere dimmer switch, but something more dramatic and bright.

In the church calendar, today we’re celebrating the arrival of the Magi (or Wise Men) to Bethlehem to pay homage to the Christ-child. Symbolically they represent the spread of the Gospel to non-Jewish people (the Gentiles). Guided by a star (see the light theme), the magi travel a far distance to the Holy Land to worship and give gifts to Jesus. You can read all about it in Mathew’s Gospel, Chapter Two.

This year I was thinking about how in so many of our beloved Christmas movies the main character undergoes some sort of epiphany that radically changes their perspective. Often our protagonist is confronted with a visitor with a message. Sometimes this messenger is resisted and opposed before the lights finally come on and the hero is transformed.

George Bailey and Clarence. Walter Hobbs and Buddy. Ebenezer Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past.

I read Dickens’s A Christmas Carol every year. It’s a masterpiece, and I almost always see something new. This year, I was struck especially by a passage where Scrooge, in his pain after seeing the scenes presented to him by the Ghost of Christmas Past, actually attempts to get rid of the ghost trying to put out the Ghost’s light.

Dickens presents the Ghost as a kind of living candle.

The Ghost is holding a cap that looks like a candle snuffer. You know, the kind your grandparents used to have–or maybe you have too?

Scrooge grabs the hat-extinguisher and tries to put out the ghost’s light. Here’s the illustration from the original book:

And here is Dickens describing the frantic action:

‘Remove me!’ Scrooge exclaimed. ‘I cannot bear it!’

He turned upon the Ghost, and seeing that it looked upon him with a face, in which in some strange way there were fragments of all the faces it had shown him, wrestled with it.

‘Leave me! Take me back! Haunt me no longer!’

In the struggle, if that can be called a struggle in which the ghost with no visible resistance on its own part was undisturbed by any effort of its adversary, Scrooge observed that its light was burning high and bright; and dimly connecting that with its influence over him, he seized the extinguisher-cap, and by a sudden action pressed it down upon its head.

The Spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher covered its whole form; but though Scrooge pressed it down with all his force, he could not hide the light, which streamed from under it, in an unbroken flood upon the ground. (Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol)

Truth is we all resist the light sometimes. If it’s going to reveal that we’re wrong, and we don’t want to be embarrassed. If we’re going to have to apologize or revise our way of living, we resist. Sometimes to the point of lying to ourselves or others in order to protect our version of reality.

It won’t work.

The light will always win. It’s impossible to extinguish. Better to let it shine than try to ignore it or extinguish it.

Ultimately, we’re talking about Jesus–the light of the world. May He grant you many epiphanies this year. And even if it’s painful–I hope we’ll be quick to embrace his truth, admit when we’re wrong, and seek to walk in his light.

“In [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it….The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:4-5, 9-12)