Day 13 ~ Dayspring (Luke 1:78)

It is amazing how often we will encounter something in our daily lives, assume we know all about it and just go on completely satisfied. For years I have read Luke 1:78 "the dayspring from on high hath visited us" and just continued on. I thought that dayspring meant "the day is breaking" or more poetically "dawn is springing up." But I had to look closer because one day I realized that I wasn't sure if that was what it really meant. The Greek word "anatole" has a broader and more impressive meaning. It refers to the rising of the sun and the stars. It is an astrological term. It is bigger than just meaning morning has come.

It causes me to think of how many mornings I have lain in bed watching (sometimes throwing a pillow over my head) as the dawning light increases in brightness outside my bedroom curtains; the dayspring streaming in upon me. I think to myself "it's getting light out" and I remain completely unappreciative of the entire world turning on it axis and revolving around the sun. The sun itself in motion with the swirling stars of our galaxy, and the whole interacting with a complex and interlocking universe. All around me there is a wonderful cosmic dance, and my only thought is - it's getting light out. I suppose it is common to the human condition to see only a small part of the whole. We are ignorant of grandeur when we are focused on the minutiae.

In August 1896, two brothers, sons of a local clergyman and co-owners of a bike shop in Dayton, Ohio read of the death of German engineer named Otto Lilienthal. Lilienthal had died while attempting to fly a glider he had constructed. The story so intrigued the brothers that they became obsessed with the problems of creating a "heavier than air" aeronautic vehicle where the pilot's body weight would not be the basis for direction and balance. Their research into past experiments was helpful but the field was new and not much work had been done. In 1899 the brothers hit upon a break-through design which would allow individual "wing warping" and allow great flexibility in balance and steering. The design was heavy and needed to be powered to produce the necessary uplift for sustained flight. For various reasons, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina was selected as the ideal location for the brothers' experiments. Starting in 1900, the brothers worked to perfect the design of their wings with gliders of various designs. Three years later they found the design they were looking for and set out to try a manned powered flight.

In December 1903, the Wright brothers were successful in getting their "flying machine" off the ground. Orville's first flight lasted only 12 seconds, and he flew only 100 feet. But the brothers, however, were ecstatic. Three more flights followed, with the last and longest being 852 feet in 59 seconds. Preparing for a fifth run, a gust of wind caught the wings and flipped the aircraft end-over-end. The 1903 flying season was over. The first flight – lasting only 100 feet in a little over 10 seconds - was the foundation on which people today regularly fly at over a mile per second.

That afternoon, after taking time to eat lunch, the brothers hiked over to the Kitty Hawk weather station and telegraphed this message to their family: "Success four flights Thursday morning. All against twenty-one mile wind. Started from level with engine power alone. Average speed through air thirty-one miles. Longest 59 seconds. Inform press. Home Christmas. Orville Wright."

Their Sister Katherine took the telegram down to the Dayton newspaper offices. Reportedly the editor of the local newspaper glanced at the telegram and said, "How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas." In the face of this revolutionary breakthrough that would literally change the world forever, he had only seen the smallest immediate facet, and totally missed the biggest news of all.

A day will come when we will stand before the Lord to be judged of all we have done. And I think that not only will we have a bright recollection of all our own actions in life, we will be able to see all the ways that He moved in our lives. We will see the personal tutoring and the care, the protection and the testing, and I believe that we will be overwhelmed by it. We will see past our little brightening curtains at how the Lord has moved in majesty around us. Some will go away sorrowing and weeping. Some will fall at His feet and proclaim "O Lord, my God!" We will see the Dayspring from on high upon us.