Epiphany 6

Another epiphany from Tuesday's drive home. (Clicking on the picture enlarges it.)
Epiphany means a showing forth.  I was given a basket of fruit covered with cellophane.  The covering is cellulose structured in such a way that it shows (phan) what is in the basket.  The same Greek word "phan" is the root of epiphany; "epi" means "forth."
The Visit of the Magi and the Baptism of Jesus are Epiphanies.  This year we extend the celebration to the following Sunday with the gospel of the Wedding Feast of Cana. In these stories Jesus shows God to us. 
There are moments in our own lives when God is manifested to us in beautiful scenes in nature like those that I witnessed on Tuesday in the way the lowering sun played on the snow.  God shows Godself to us also in beautiful works of art, paintings, sculptures, music, poetry, movies, and even at times in something we see on TV.  Anywhere we find Beauty we find God. 
We may not explicitly name God in the experience, but we are experiencing God.  God doesn't hold back because we might not notice Divinity.  I think even people who don't know God or say they don't believe in God experience God in Beauty.  They may not call the feeling or the experience "God" but it is.
It is not unlike the old Latin quote: "Bidden or not bidden God is present."  I wonder if this is not part of what Dostoevsky means when he says, "Beauty will save the world."