Recapturing Awe & Wonder

I love my boys for so many reasons. One of my favorite thing specifically about my oldest son, Hudson, is his amazing imagination. Our two bedroom apartment is constantly being transformed into a pirate infested ocean, a superhero battle ground, or the outskirts of deep space where aliens are being kept at bay by valiant heroes. 

Hudson not only has a beautiful imagination, he also has a heart that is full of wonder and awe about Who God is and all that He has done. Not a single day goes by without Hudson asking, “Did God make this dad?” or state, “Well, if you don’t know, I know God does… He knows everything.” Hudson is aware that God loves us, that God is always with us in our everyday activities, and that we are created for Him and by Him. In short, when Hudson thinks of God, his heart is filled with joy, wonder and awe. 

I’m not this way nearly as much as I used to be. I remember as a child looking into the vast blackness of the sky at night and as the stars danced in place feeling a sense of awe and helplessness. I remember being up on Mt. Lemmon and watching the sunset and being filled with a sense of the infinite and somehow finding that feeling overcome my worries and bring me peace. Now, I am filled with so many other worries and inundated with information that I rarely take the time to simply be in awe. 

It’s no wonder that Jesus said to His followers:

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” 

-Matthew 18:3-5 (ESV)

This is one of the reasons God gave us the gift of the arts. As adults, it is easy to become “all business” all the time. We get caught up in what needs to get done and lose sight of what is most important to our hearts… being in awe and reclaiming the wonder of the infinite God that loves us and created all things that we experience. In his book Ruthless Trust, author and priest Brennan Manning talked about the importance of the Christian experience moving beyond a mere intellectual understanding: 

“The Christian artists who composed such hymns as ‘How Great Thou Art,’ ‘There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy,’ “I Stand in Awe of You,’ and ‘Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord’ invite us to stretch our limited understanding of God. Through daring images and bold metaphors rooted in the Word, they guide us to a profound self-esteem within an enlarged vision of the magnitude of the Divine. In Karl Rahner’s words, they help us in ‘coming to see ourselves as God sees us, the object of infinite love and unremitting solicitude.’  They whet our appetite for the Infinite. They suggest that the [Glory of God] must be defined as absolute love. They imply that our awe of God is limited by our impoverished imagination.”

I have one simple challenge as we gather together this weekend; open your heart to the bigness of God. Allow the idea that He who created all the things that we marvel at is far greater than we could possibly imagine and He desires to meet with you. To remind us of the kind of relationship God desires to have with us, we will start our time with singing Good, Good Father. We will then sing of our desire to honor Him with our hearts and our lips by singing Ever Be. We will end our time of singing with This Beating Heart to remind ourselves that when we live in rhythm with God, that’s when we are living life to the full.