As a student, I’m luckily no stranger to ah-ha moments. Oftentimes I’ll be sitting in the library, laser-focused on a paper or problem that doesn’t make sense, when a bolt of understanding suddenly arcs across my mind. Of course, I think, how did I not realize that? Newly enthusiastic and enlightened, I scribble down my insight on the page.

Today’s readings give me hope not just for academic understanding, but for greater realizations. “Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding,” the first reading from Isaiah says, “and those who find fault shall receive instruction.” These things, on top of the miracles we hear about more often — the deaf hearing and the blind seeing — made me realize just how miraculous those bolts of understanding are. I don’t know where they come from; it’s entirely possible that all of my muddling, plus a fair amount of desperation, organizes my neurons in just the right way so that the key to the problem erupts. But I can’t help but think that there’s something divine in those realizations as well, and perhaps God is looking at me, and guides my mind just as God physically guided so many in the Bible.

While I’m grateful for those bolts of understanding of my schoolwork, today’s reading promises deeper understanding of the spirit. I puzzle over essays, but there are larger issues in my faith over which I do not just puzzle, I agonize. And while I can consult my fellow humans, priest or layperson, about those issues, their explanations and my own attempts to understand never quite fill the holes that I always seem to find. On this Advent day, then, I pray for the understanding I never seem to quite fully find, and if I ever do receive that understanding, I’ll be sure to recognize it for what it is: a miracle.