Aha Moments
Sunday, January 6th, 2008A View from the Nest www.eagleviews.org
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” Matthew 2:1 & 2 (NKJV)
epiph·a·ny 3 a (1): a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something (2): an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking (3): an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure b: a revealing scene or moment
Have you ever had one of those aha moments? You know the ones, where all of a sudden a light goes off and you realize the answer to a puzzle you have been trying to solve. One of those moments where something profound hits your consciousness like a freight train. You get run over from the experience. It is something you can not deny. You know it when you experience it. One of those instant enlightening moments as if someone suddenly turns the light on and you can clearly see for the first time in a long time.
To a song writer it is the “hook”. To a scientist perhaps a newly discovered gene. To the novelist, a plot twist and to a child perhaps it is the first step. To Archimedes it was the discovery of buoyancy for which he is reportedly to have shouted “Eureka”! To Isaac Newton it may have been when he got hit on the head with a falling apple. Young Albert Einstein was struck with inspiration when handed a compass and realized that some unseen force in space was making it move.
Aha moments are everywhere. They come unexpectedly most times but usually while searching. Although they appear to be sudden discoveries, they are however the eventual outcome of due diligence. Curiosity causes a ripple effect to begin. The constant searching and seeking after understanding led many a young pioneer to new discoveries and great advances in the arts and sciences. Without curiosity and the constant seeking for answers there would be no new discoveries, or aha moments to write about.
Sir Isaac Newton put it best when he said:
“I keep the subject of my inquiry constantly before me, and wait till the first dawning opens gradually, by little and little, into a full and clear light.”
The Christian life has unfolding moments like that, when you discover there is much more to God and his kingdom than you first knew, much more to his purpose for you than you imagined. Abraham experienced that at age 75, Moses at age 80, the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus.
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