Surprised by Wonder

I suppose wonder always takes you by surprise. Wonder, being the sort of experience that takes your breath away. It is rational, in that you take it in and process it; but it is more than rational, in that it is emotional and beyond your understanding. It is a mixture of fear, curiosity, and delight—kind of like joy on steroids. It challenges your categories and forces you to ask questions. Often you feel humbled because it feels too vast for your present understanding. It is uncontrollable and yet you are drawn deeper in as you try to get to the center of things. It arrests your full attention and causes you to feel like, if I can understand this, it will change me. Like, if I could get beyond the surface of this thing, I would be more fully alive and present. 

 

We are going to spend this summer talking about wonder. Why? Because we were made for it, even in our fallen condition. The world is full of God’s glory and to live a life without wonder is to be dehumanized, but don’t just take my word for it. This summer, we will be looking at passages in the book of Mark. Over thirty times in this book, we come across instances of Jesus doing something astounding, and everyone is just flabbergasted. Of course, they are—what they are seeing is a new world breaking in! 

 

For us today, it is no less amazing and shocking than it was over two thousand years ago, but perhaps we can’t see it. Articles abound about the loss of wonder, and this, ironically, when technology has granted us perhaps even more opportunities to marvel. As we will discuss, this is not for lack of information, but for lack of ability to see. I can’t wait to talk about it with you. 

 

It has been a whole week of wonder here at St. Patrick, with scads of children learning about Jesus in wild and creative ways. The halls have rung with laughter, and the sanctuary has shaken with the worship the least of these. (We will be showing some of this, as well!)