I love the anthropomorphism found in the hymns for Christmas and Theophany/Epiphany. It’s not uncommon for Church hymns to use this type of language, especially in the Psalms, but it has been notable and meaningful to me recently. This has been a dark and painful season for me personally, but these hymns speak of a sweet stirring in the whole world as it prepares for the celebrations of Christ being born and being baptized. There is such healing beauty in the hope offered us in these feasts, a sense of wild joy that is so uncontainable and unfathomable it calls for the earth to dance and the rivers to “skip for gladness”. The hymn writer calls forth that jubilation in our hearts as well:

“River Jordan, take delight and be filled with exceeding joy; O ye earth and sea, O ye mountains and hills and hearts of men, now leap with gladness and rejoicing as ye receive the noetic light.”

The hymns for Theophany also repeatedly speak of the waters being afraid and reversing course because of the unworthiness they feel at their Creator being baptized in them. Many of the icons for this feast have little men in the water at Jesus’ feet that are meant to be the River and the Sea. I love the marriage of holy fear and sheer delight that creation has in these hymns and icons.

Theophany is also called the Feast of Illumination. This feast brings light and shows us the true nature of things. This is where the Trinity is revealed to us. It is here Christ invites creation to participate in His redemptive work. Humanity is not left out of this renewal. By taking on flesh, Christ renewed the Image of God in mankind. By being baptized in the Jordan, Christ sanctified the waters, so that the waters can sanctify us.

When something is blessed, like water is during this feast, it is more than a perceptual change. In blessings, God is functioning in response to our participation in His work. He wants us to work with Him in the renewal and sanctification of the world. The Great Blessing of the Waters performed by the priest during Theophany is also a charge to us to take that blessing out into the world.

Blessings come in many forms. I was reminded recently of a sweet moment with a little girl I used to babysit. She found a tiny inchworm that had fallen on her from a tree, and she stared at it with a sense of awe and great gentleness. She said “I think he loves us. I’m going to bless him. That means I’ll say a prayer for him.” A blessing can be as simple as that sweet acknowledgement of the holiness that surrounds us in even the tiniest of creatures. This feast invites us and all the earth to participate in our own redemption and reminds us that we can be Image Bearers of God that bring joyous and gentle blessings in our hearts for all that we meet.