The birth of Jesus became the worst kept secret in the history of the world. All along, people knew God had a plan. God had told everyone from Adam and Eve, to Abraham and Sara, to Moses and Miriam, to David and Bathsheba, to Hosea and Gomer, to Mary and Joseph that there was a plan. Nobody fully understood it. Nobody knew how God would bring the plan to fulfillment, but they all believed. They had seen God work mighty deeds in their lives, and they believed that one day the promise of redemption would be fulfilled.

Jesus was God’s secret. When Jesus was born in humble surroundings outside of royalty and pageantry, only a handful of people even began to realize what God had done.

But the secret got out. Angels appeared in the sky. Shepherds showed up. Magi traveled from faraway land. Everyone was finding out God’s two great surprises: Jesus was born as the promised Messiah, and he came not just for his own race, but for all the people of the world.

The letter to the Ephesians says, God’s mystery “was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” Jesus was born, and he came to save each of us, no matter how we behaved. The mystery of God’s love is open now to the whole world. That is the epiphany, the revelation of God’s secret.