My favourite blog, Brain Pickings, posted a wonderful article of 10 things learnt in 10 years of blogging at the end of 2016. I was very struck by the first lesson learned:

Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind.

Today is the rich and beautiful feast of Epiphany, marking the beginning of the Epiphany season when we remember the visit of the Magi from the East, the Baptism of Jesus and the early miracle of Jesus’ ministry, the turning of water to wine at the wedding at Cana.

Thinking about those wise men, it occurred to me that their true wisdom was in recognising that their first guess of the palace of Jerusalem as the place to find this boy king was wrong. To use Maria Popova’s phrase, they allowed themselves the uncomfortable luxury of changing their mind. As I re-read the story of the visit of the magi I was struck by the response of Herod – one of fear and suspicion rather than what should have been a response of delight and hospitality. There are plenty of world leaders today whose response to difference, to strangers, to new ideas is one of fear and suspicion. Might we be more like the magi, ready to be open to a new way. They returned home by a new way, a different way, having had their eyes opened to something completely wonderfully new, a new hope perhaps.

This epiphany, this ‘revealing’ perhaps ultimately came to them quietly in their sleep, as they were nudged by an angel not to go back to Herod. This revelation came from outside, not from themselves, their own deliberations. This dream of the magi is depicted in a beautiful and arresting way in this carving at the Cathedral of Autun in France. Look at the gentle nudge by the angel using one finger, waking up one of the men. Might we be nudged awake to tread a new path in 2017 of hope, wisdom and adventure.

By Cancre (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Thanks to Sr Catherine for sharing this image on your blog.