The Journey of Epiphany

Some of our journeys are planned and others just creep up on us.  Sometimes we don’t recognize that we are on a journey.  In some cases we are traveling with others of our choosing on a planned journey.  Then again, sometimes we are just walking the path along side of someone we don’t remember.

In my last blog I mentioned a homeless man that reminded me of one of the kings in my Christmas crèche.  He was tall and dark skinned and his long ragged coat blew about in the cold wintery wind as I watched him disappear from my view.  The snow could have been sand on a desert.  Then a day or two later another tall long-coated man approached me at a gas station who wanted to pump my gas for a dollar.  I said thanks but no thanks and just gave him a dollar. Was this another king on a journey?

So it stands to reason there must be a third king coming my way as I walk the journey of Epiphany. And sure enough, I received a call in the office from someone I didn’t remember.  This king was a Mexican immigrant who had contacted me earlier in the year after he left a detention camp where he waited for immigration papers.  He was a diabetic and needed medication.  I sent him to a neighborhood health center and they took care of him.  Now, months later, he was calling me into his journey again. 

The first thing I remember when I answered the phone was this king remembered me.  He told me that since our last call he received his green card and was on Medicaid.  He was working part time as a handyman.  But he had another healthcare emergency.  When he was in the detention camp they gave him shoes that did not fit properly.  As a diabetic he developed neuropathy.  He needed special shoes and his insurance would not pay for them.  It was so painful to stand that it jeopardized his ability to work for any length of time.  He said the shoes would cost over $400 and he needed a down payment of $200 to just order them.  He asked me to help him.

I got the name of his doctor, and told him I would call him back.  The scenario was all legitimate but I had no idea where to go for the money to pay for the shoes.  I was sitting at my desk talking to God about this when the church priest walked by my office.  I called to him and told him the story.  In about an hour I received $200 from his discretionary fund.  I called the podiatrist and said I was going to help pay for the shoes.  I still have to find the balance needed, but I am very hopeful.

So was this the third king encounter… this Mexican who has been on a journey far longer than I can imagine, and probably far more intense than any journey I may have traveled in my lifetime?  And why are these kings coming to me for help?  Weren’t the original three kings wealthy dignitaries who left the safety of their homes and traveled miles following a star just to find yet another king and lay their gifts at his feet?

Sometimes my imagination runs wild.  Still, the journey of Epiphany as I encountered it this year was intriguing.  We are all walking these journeys with one another.  It’s just that we don’t stop to think and ponder about where we are or who we are standing with at any one time until it becomes really an obnoxious or weird kind of scenario.  What’s your journey going to be like today?  Who will you encounter?  Will you trust yourself in the next step?

(The Three Wise Men -- Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1925)