So often we trudge through each day handling our tasks, only to complete everything (or add some to the next day’s list) and then do the same the next day. Honestly, such an existence is mundane, boring, and an absolute waste! Yet, it’s so funny how we all fall into that repetitive trap.
Just this morning, a beautiful thought radiated into my mind with vibrant flashes of color – so much so that my spirit began to flourish again with life, and an increased flow of creative thoughts. What was it? Wonder. I had gotten so stuck in the grind of life, just making things happen, that I failed to take the time to look deeper, to explore, to feel small again.
Watch just about any child around you. A few words come to mind – joyful, trusting, and curious. In their growing scope of life, they place dependence on someone else, yet they have an ever-present sense of desire to explore, to learn, to experience more. They know they are smaller than their world, and their wonder drives this.
As we move through adulthood it’s easy to “outgrow” the need for wonder. When’s the last time you took the opportunity to research something bigger (though it could be even smaller) than yourself? For me, it’s not the details in an encyclopedia or wiki, it’s about being still and observing – seeing the color, design; hearing the intricate sounds, reaching out to touch – or maybe experiencing the inability to touch – the vastness of surrounding beauty, or possibly observing how nature’s destruction can be the source to a new ecosystem or way of life. Here’s a test: if you went outside and had to look at the night sky, what would it do for you? Do you still have that wonder you had when you looked up in your younger years?
The 8th Psalm points out the awestruck wonder of its author when he scanned creation. He said, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou are mindful of him?”
I’d say this. One cannot truly worship God until he has a sense of both his size and dependence on his Creator. One cannot lead effectively unless he is mindful of his place in the universe. One cannot be creative unless he is truly curious and observant of the world around him.
We all need a sense of wonder.