“When I look at the night sky and see the work of Your fingers – the moon and the stars You set in place – what are mere mortals that You would think about them, human beings that You should care for them?” (Psalm 8:3-4 NLT)
Do you still wonder? As a boy, my neighbor and I would lie on our backs at night, staring at the stars and the magnificence of space. What’s out there? How far does it go? What would it be like to be able to fly to the far reaches of the universe, and beyond?
It wasn’t a question I pondered then, but as an adult, especially as a child of God, I wonder why God created the vastness of space? Galaxies so vast our strongest telescopes can’t catch a glimpse! Will we one day be able to explore the things that now are such a mystery? Will God commission us to visit a spot 10 trillion light years away, just to behold its extraordinary beauty and splendor?
I read in a recent Turning Point devotional by David Jeremiah: “The Scottish missionary, David Livingstone, is the first-known European to view the massive waterfalls on the Zambezi River in Africa. Livingstone named the falls Victoria Falls in honor of England’s Queen Victoria. He recorded in his journal, ‘Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.’” (Turning Point The Source of All Wonder– 09-07-22)
What is wonder? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as: “astonishment or surprise; marvel; miracle; a feeling (as of awed astonishment or uncertainty) aroused by something extraordinary or affecting; amazement, to feel curiosity or doubt.”
There’s a sense in which nothing surprises or amazes us anymore. At the point we feel like we’ve “seen it all,” whether of good or evil, we’re astonished by another invention or an act of evil so heinous we wonder how anyone could have conceived it.
G. K. Chesterton wrote: “The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder.” What does that mean? I can’t pretend to know with certainty, but to me it means “miraculous” things are all around us, but we’re so preoccupied by the harried concerns of life, we miss them.
The birth of a child, the joy of a puppy (most of the time 😊), the splendor of a sunset, the mysteries of the human body, or the magnificence of God’s creativity in nature all boggle my mind. Yet, the greatest wonder upon which the Lord points my heart and mind is the thought: what could God accomplish in and through one person, completely yielded and devoted to Him?
We catch a glimpse in the life of Jesus, but I’m talking about today, in 2022. What if we could shift our focus from ourselves, our minuscule existence, our “blip” on the proverbial radar screen of life, to consider what full commitment and devotion to Jesus might look like.
What would God be able and willing to do in a life in which He exercised full control? What if our heart, mind, soul, and body grew so accustomed to carrying out God’s will and desires that our will and desires became a distant second in our thinking. What if constantly thinking “how far can I push the line and still not ‘sin,’” became “how closely can I approximate my obedience, love, and commitment to Jesus’; to His submission to the Father?”
The third verse of I Wonder as I Wander says: “If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing, A star in the sky, or a bird on the wing, Or all of God’s angels in heav’n for to sing, He surely could have it, ’cause he was the King.” (words and music collected by John Jacob Niles)
He’s still the King and can give us whatever we need, to be all He desires us to be. I wonder…?
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 