In a meeting a few weeks ago, each person in the group was asked to share an experience of an epiphany: an experience of an aha moment--an experience in which it was clear that God was showing you something that had never crossed your mind, or perhaps something that you once knew but needed to be reminded. Since the question quickly got around to me, I shared one of the things that had been most recent. However, as I sat and continued to think over the previous weeks and months, I realized that there had been many moments of epiphany; I just hadn’t been paying enough attention at the time to recognize them.
As we continue to make our way through the season of Epiphany, I am struck by the number of times that I (and I’m guessing many of you) miss things big and small that have the potential to turn into really big aha moments—really big moments that bring transformative light into our lives, into the lives of those around us, and into the lives of people that we may not even know. One of my favorite bible stories about having to make the decision to pay attention when God is trying to invite us into an aha moment is the story in Exodus of Moses and the bush that was burning but was not consumed. Moses looked and saw that the bush was burning but was not consumed and then made a decision to turn aside from his own plans for that moment in order to pay more attention to this moment of God reaching out to him.
While God sometimes reaches out to us in burning bush moments there are other times in which it’s not quite so obvious and grand. Like the child Samuel in 1 Samuel chapter 3, there are times when God is calling out to us, and we kind of hear it but aren’t quite sure what to make of it. Samuel needed Eli to help him recognize that what he was perceiving was God calling to him. Many times, we too need a trusted companion or community of companions to help us to realize that the tug that we’re feeling is God calling us and inviting us into an aha moment.
Howard Thurman once said: “There is in every person that which waits, waits, waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in herself. There is that in every person that waits—waits and listens—for the sound of the genuine in other people. And when these two sounds come together, this is the music God heard when He said, “Let us make man in our image.”
As we continue our journey through Epiphany, may we listen for the sound of the genuine in ourselves and others which is the Spirit of God reaching out to us with invitations into transformative aha moments. And as we listen, may we respond with open hearts and willing spirits so that the light of God’s love may fill our hearts and shine wherever we go.
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