I started crying. I didn’t know why I was crying, but I couldn’t make the tears stop.
Sitting in a massive theater in Nashville, Tennessee, I watched a young man who had gone blind, playing the piano and telling us about how he “saw” sounds as colors. As he described the colors he saw, I was captivated. His sense of wonder awakened something in me that I hadn’t even realized had died. On that September afternoon, I realized I had lost my sense of wonder about so many things.
With my unexpected tears, I felt like God was lighting a small spark within me. Over the next few months, that small spark became a large fire and it changed how I approached the Christmas season. What had been a wonder-LESS season became a wonder-FULL one again.
If wonder is "a feeling of amazement and admiration, caused by something beautiful, remarkable, or unfamiliar,” then how do we create space this Christmas season to see with fresh eyes that which leads to amazement and admiration?
From my own experience of reawakened wonder, I’d love to share a few places you could start from:
Meditate on how the light of Jesus shines in the darkness.
John begins his biography of the life and teaching of Jesus with a unique introduction, writing: “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”
Many of us lack wonder because we’ve spent all our time dwelling on the presence and pervasiveness of the darkness in our world. That focus has left us disappointed, disillusioned, cynical, and heartbroken.
What would happen if we shifted our meditation from the darkness to the light? Instead of mentally listing all that is wrong with the world, pull out a piece of paper and make a list of all that Jesus came to do beginning at Christmas. How does His light shine in your darkness? How does He give life to you?
When we change what we meditate on, we start down the path to a new sense of wonder.
Look through the eyes of a child.
We cannot step into a time machine and travel back to a time in our childhood where we overflowed with wonder, but we can learn something about God from children. What you've seen cannot be unseen and what you've experienced cannot be undone - but you can get back an adult-size sense of wonder.
Christian author G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again;’ and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
When I read that quote, I think of how excited my kids get each night during the Christmas season as we turn on our inflatable decorations. Last year, we had three inflatables - one for each of our little “savages” - and they would squeal with glee each night as they awakened and arose to wonder.
Watching them overflow with wonder caused me to see the next day’s sunrise differently. Is it possible God sees His world through those eyes? The wonder of children offers us a pair of glasses to borrow while God works on our vision.
Schedule a 30-minute trip to look at the stars.
When Job experiences God restoring His sense of wonder and awe, God’s greatest tool is His work in creation. John 1 reminds us that we cannot have creation without Jesus. In fact, creation reveals the wonders of Jesus.
A few years ago, I moved from a big city to a small town. One of the first differences I noted was how much brighter the stars were at night out here. The problem is that, after decades of living in big cities, I’ve trained myself to never look up.
When’s the last time you traveled to a place where you could look up and marvel at what Jesus created? Something about looking up resets our souls.
William Beebe, a naturalist, is reported to have told this story about his friendship with President Teddy Roosevelt: At Roosevelt’s home near Sagamore Hill, after an evening of talk, the two would go out on the lawn and search the skies for a certain spot of star-like light near the lower left-hand corner of the Great Square of Pegasus.
Then Roosevelt would recite: “That is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It consists of one hundred billion suns, each larger than our sun.” Then Roosevelt would grin and say, “Now I think we are small enough! Let’s go to bed.”
Sometimes, a moment of feeling small amidst the vastness of Jesus and His creation restores a bit of wonder within us. Over time, being present in creation can awaken a vibrant wonder about the Creator who holds it all together.
Whichever of these steps you take (or maybe you even create your own), pause long enough to consider how you can create space for wonder during this season. Because it’s hard to worship Jesus without wonder.
Spend Time in Wonder:
We've put together three journaling prompts for you to reflect on as you explore what it means to rediscover wonder this Christmas season.
Scott Savage is a pastor and a writer. He leads Cornerstone Church in Prescott, Arizona. Scott is married to Dani and they are the parents of three “little savages.” He is the creator of the Free to Forgive course and you can read more of his writing at scottsavagelive.com.
