Light is the theme of the day. I love the way fire looks in the grey half light of a winter afternoon around the Puget Sound where I’m from. These grey days with their low clouds can feel oppressive. Bleak winter days can seem to go on forever, making our load seem heavier, doubling our weariness, anxiety, boredom, depression, isolation, monotony, disappointment, aimlessness, etc. But with the flash of a flame—a candle, a crackling fire, the gloom dissipates to a great degree. The radiant heat and light changes the whole atmosphere these days. It gives a point of reference, a sense of safety, even of purpose as we carefully tend the flames. It works like a charm. 

That’s the feeling I found myself wanting to express as I worked through the familiar typological forms of this little painting. The Virgin, draped in the grey-blue hues of the overcast sky and dark winter waters of my homeland, gazes pensively at something away from us. Perhaps she looks down at  the small globe her Child holds (almost impossibly) in his little hand. By contrast, the Christ Child gazes directly at us with perfect confidence. A challenge, maybe, while troubling clouds swirl above, drenching the shadowy vegetation at his feet. 

This is the meaning of ‘Epiphany’ to me. A fire. A desperately needed inner fire is the promise of the Divine Child—light. A light given as a gift to us so that we don’t have to live perpetually in the grey gloom of our earthly burdens. Proximity to the Source of this light is the surest way to keep warm and safe in this kind of wilderness…and to keep sane. And to have joy.    

Happy Epiphany!