How Far Is It From Wonder to Wander?

So, do you ever wonder what has happened to the wonder in your life? I do. I remember watching magic and really being caught up in a state of wonder. Not wondering if I could figure out what happened, or how it was done, but pure wonder. I remember feeling that I couldn’t just explain it away, and the more I tried to figure it out, the less wonderful it became.

That was a long time ago, and I guess maybe, I felt it wasn’t a feeling I could really have again. Then I had kids, and it happened; over and over again, each time I watched the birth of one of our children. Total wonder that of all the possible things that could have gone wrong, none did. That, combined with the cosmic odds against their mother and I ever even meeting in the first place, and pure wonder occurred. A few weeks ago, our oldest daughter shared that she is pregnant, and that feeling of wonder wasn’t the first thing that came over me. I started with just wondering, a wonder that was looking for answers. Then I turned around, and was filled with another wonder, one not desperate for an explanation, but rejoicing in its splendor. Wow!

You see, we don’t look for wonder any more, or to have the experience of it. It seems it is more important to explain away things or even create somewhat far-fetched stories, to avoid the possibility of something being purely wonderful. We are not the first generation to do this, and we won’t be the last. Look at this passage from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome:

 Romans 1:24-25 (NIV)
²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
²⁵ They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.

I think that is it. Paul simply states that God gave people what they wanted: choosing created things over the Creator. They had wandered from the wonder of God, to what felt better. As I read Paul’s letter, I think it could be written today, and it could be written to us.

The word used to describe the amazing and unexplainable in the Bible, was miraculous. It was the word used to describe the obvious: miracles. The great news is that they haven’t stopped. I think we have just wandered away from looking for them. Wonder is evidence of God. Unexplained, unbelievable, unmistakable divine interventions into our lives, where the hand of God touches His creation. We need to return to God, looking at Him in wonder, and stop all the meaningless wandering that keeps us from it.

…just praying’

In His Grip,

Pastor Pat