<br/>The Wonder of It All

My three grandboys walked around with mouths and eyes wide open. The Monetery Bay Aquarium’s theme is “Prepare to Be Amazed.” And we were, time after time.

The strange and brightly colored fish, the transparency of the jellies, the playfulness of the otters: All intrigued and amazed.

But the widest mouths and eyes, the greatest wonder occurred as we stared at tiny, wispy, amazing seahorses. Some looked like dragons, others like trees, others like a leafy green vegetable. They have heads like horses, tails like monkeys and pouches like kangaroos. We were amazed.

I recently read two wonderful books about Wonder.

In Touching Wonder: Recapturing the Awe of Christmas, John Blase reacquaints us with each character and event in the Christmas story, focusing on the wonder inherent in every one of them. Imagine Mary’s awe at the angelic visit, Joseph’s trembling when the angel spoke to him, the terror of the shepherds….

Wonderstruck: Awaken to the Nearness of God by Margaret Feinberg awakened something deep in me. As Margaret described the aurora borealis and took me on a treasure hunt in Africa, invited me to her table and introduced me to Captain Jack, I too discovered new wonder and awe that God, who made it all, actually wanted me to experience it with Him.

And so, my word for this year, or at least the next few months, is WONDER! I want to be prepared to be amazed!I am asking God to awaken my mind and my heart, to open my mouth and my eyes to see Him in deeper ways than I ever have before. I’m sure He wants to do that, according to Isaiah 29:14: “Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder.…”

Some of the things I often wonder at include Creation, Birth, Grace, Mercy, Love, Serving, Hope. So I will begin with these to see what new wonders God reveals to me.

And I invite you to come with me on this journey. I hope to write about God’s awesomeness and wonder a couple of times each month. That’s what Anne LaMott tells me a writer should do:

“This is our goal as writers, I think: to help others have this sense of wonder, of seeing things anew, things that catch us off-guard, that break into our small bordered worlds.”

So if you see me walking around with my mouth agape and my eyes transfixed, just know that I have been wonderstruck by our awesome God.

What about you? What has caused you to have mouth and eyes wide open in awe?

C2013 Judy Douglass