I Wonder

Matthew 19:13-14

13 Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.

14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

Psalm 139: 14

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;     your works are wonderful,     I know that full well.

Children are natural wonder seekers aren’t they? They are always tuned in to details big and small. They sense wonder in shadows on the wall, faces in the clouds, pillow fort construction, and all things slimy and gooey. They cannot hide their wonder. It’s all over their faces, in their surprised eyes and gaping mouths and jittery excitement. There are simply so many things that bring wonder and are begging for us to wonder about.

I like to think when the children ran to Jesus (I imagine it happened a lot more than it was documented), that they did so with a sense of wonder. Who is this Jesus? I wonder if what they say about him is true? I wonder if he could teach me how to walk on water. I wonder if he will do any miracles for me to see? I wonder if he will answer my questions? I wonder if he likes to play. I wonder.

These children came to Jesus with child-like faith. A child-like faith isn’t rigid and boxed in and expects things from God. It is fluid and curious and wide-eyed and filled with.… wonder.

But what is wonder?

It may be harder to pin down than you think.

Monica Parker in her book The Power of Wonder, says wonder has 5 elements:

watching (a sense of openness)

wandering (a deep curiosity)

whittling (absorption or focus)

wow and whoa (awe)

Wonder helps us be open to possibilities and options, taking nothing for granted. It nurtures our sense of curiosity so that we ask questions, explore, discover, and create. I recently bought a kids book called How to Be An Explorer of the World. The entire book is about making observations and exploring life around you, or approaching the world with a sense of wonder. Wonder is hard to wrap our minds around and so it includes the wows and the whoas, from small gasps to the OMG mind blown emoji moments.

And so a faith filled with wonder is a faith filled with openness and lifelong learning and growing, deep curiosity, absorbing all we can and focusing, and plenty of wow and whoa.

What are some of your first memories of wonder? When have you last been open to learning something new, deeply curiosity and imaginative, and ready for the wow and the whoa?

This is one of Andrea Scher’s favorite questions to ask others as she shares in her delightful book Wonder Seeker. Andrea says when she first asks this question, someone will get this far away look in their eyes before a smile creeps across their face. Some of the responses included things like seeing their shadow in the moonlight for the first time, seeing the ocean, watching an Irish setter give birth to a litter of puppies, walking alone through freshly fallen snow, and a first kiss.

What are your earliest memories of wonder?

We all have different ways of experiencing wonder, or what are referred to as wonderbringers. Perhaps you experience wonder through music, or words, or visual sensations like art or theatre, or outside spaces and natural elements, or interactions with others. Each of us has a unique lens of wonder.

But if we aren’t careful, we can lose this precious God-given sense of wonder. Instead of ushering in wonder we become like the disciples who think Jesus has more important things to attend to than nurture our childlike faith and we stop it short. Monica Parker calls this moving from the wonder-filled days of childhood to the obligation-days of adulthood. Adulting then leaves little room for wondering. Sooner or later, the novelty wears off. When we are exposed to the same stimuli over and over, it no longer overwhelms us and that sense of wow and whoa is lost. Contrary to the concept of aesthetic arrest, this is called hedonic adaptation in which we return to a baseline. My kids don’t just that fancy phrase. They just say they’re bored. We lose what is called that “first glance stance” of childhood wonder. Christine Aroney-Sine says “We suffer from play deprivation, nature deficit disorder, awe depletion, compassion fatigue, imagination suppression, and more.” We suffer from a lack of wonder.

Wonder isn’t meant to exist as a momentary surprise state but as a posture or state of being in which we see the wonderful in the ordinary. Rabbi Joshua Heschel says “to be spiritual is to be amazed.” Our excerpt from Psalm 139 speaks of this amazement. Let’s listen again. The Modern English Version says “I will praise you, for You made me with fear and wonder; marvelous are Your works, and You know me completely.”

Perhaps wonder is still alluding you. Monica Parker says wonder is “park science, part soul; part praxis, and part luck” with a healthy dose of poetic faith. “Wonder is greater than the sum of its parts”

But I wonder....Do we have to understand wonder in order to experience it? Perhaps part of what makes wonder really wonder is in the mystery of not always knowing.

One of my favorite passages of Scripture that makes me think of wonder is in Job. Job, as you may recall, has really been through it. And he finally has it out with God lamenting in frustration. Who could blame him? Chapter after chapter of this goes on and then God finally responds in a whirlwind according to this story. God asks things like “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.” (38:4) “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb when I made the clouds its garment?” (38:8) It goes on and on, an overwhelming description of God talking about the wonders God has made. Until at last Job says “I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ...Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

This moment of the whirlwind is similar to Isaiah’s vision in the throne room or the Transfiguration account we covered recently. It is this overwhelming encounter with the wonder of God, the glory of God revealed. And suddenly it isn’t just a moment but our posture before the Lord. Wonder is an appropriate theme for Lent because when we really turn to the wonder of God, we realize God is God and we are not. We are overwhelmed and brought to our knees. Like Job caught up in the whirlwind, we become like the last line of the hymn Love Divine, All Love’s Excelling that says “lost in wonder, love, and praise.”

Jesus’s disciples and his followers couldn’t fully explain, the wonder, but the wonder was a signpost of Jesus’s ministry. Remember when John the Baptist was asking if he was really the one? Jesus said to tell him what you see and hear: the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” John tells us that Jesus did so many things that if all of them were to be written down, “the world itself could not contain the books.” Those who believed were utterly amazed.

On Palm Sunday in a few weeks, we will hear of children running through the temple shouting Hosanna at all the wonderful things Jesus was doing in Matthew 21:15. They were running and leaping and shouting for joy because of these wonderful things. Let me say that again. Children were.. running..and leaping… and shouting for joy… in the temple. Who got angry about it? The adults.

But maybe the world needs our lens of wonder.

So keep seeking wonder dear ones, keep drawing near to the One who created you with a wow and woah of holy breath.

The poet John Roedel says “living in wonder is the rent I owe God.” He says “the people who come to steal your wonder are often the same folks who let others freely take theirs long ago never let it go it's yours cling to your sweetness and become a living witness to the million beautiful curiosities of your life don't let anything become mundane I'm serious pay close attention to the adventure before you all of your experiences are soaked in magic the good and the bad the happy and the sad the hilarious and the mad some people will want you to treat your pulse like it’s boring it’s anything but your life is bathed in stardust I know that doesn’t make much sense now but I’ll explain that a bit later