God Speaking

“Show the wonder of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes”

(Psalm 17:7)

I was watching, just recently, a delightful video on the internet showing toddlers seeing bubbles blown into the air for the first time. Their little faces were filled with wonder as they reached to catch one of these fascinating objects and as they burst, they doubled over with laughter and waited expectantly for the grown up adult to produce more bubbles so they could try again to catch these elusive beings. It was impossible to watch without being infected by their joy and I was suddenly saddened to think that as we grow older we somehow lose that sense of wonder. We seem to settle into complacency, our lives governed by routine, we don’t expect to be impressed by anything new so of course we miss some of the wonderful things happening all around us. I read where marriage counsellors repeatedly hear a spouse say, “Something is missing in our relationship.” I would guess often times it is wonder.

This too can happen in our Christian walk where, without us really noticing, the excitement of following Jesus fades slowly, our prayer time and worship becomes just another routine of the day, we fail to be awed by the wonder of the Mighty God we serve.

Job had slipped into underestimating who God really was, and I love this passage where God gives Job a wakeup call to who he really is and reminds him of his mighty power.

“Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God’s wonders; Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash? Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who is perfect in knowledge?” (Job 37:14 – 16)

Nature is certainly one of the best places to be yet again awed by wonder. In the same video I was watching, one of the little girl’s bubbles burst over the garden and forgetting about that pursuit, she bent right over to study a little flower that caught her attention and again her face was etched by wonder. Capturing the wonder of a child is a great way to enrich our lives.

When we begin to feel a slight cooling, a loss of excitement, a dulling of expectation in our Christian walk, we need to re-read what God said to Job;

Stop and consider God’s wonders

The Psalmists cried out to God to show them his wonders and then spent their times telling others about them. The word, wonderful means just that, filled with wonder. When the people saw what Jesus was doing among them they recognised that his actions were wonderful.

“When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.” (Luke 13:17)

To recapture childlike wonder, we need to take a fresh look at our lives, to re-read God’s word with an open expectation to be filled with wonder, to be ready to be over awed as he does wonderful things in our lives, to look at others as wonderful creatures created by God, not to be afraid to have a child like attitude to life.