The Throes of Wonder

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 23: The Throes of Wonder

Opening Thought: A spectacular chapter today, from Zacharias, where he articulates a connect from the wonders of creation to the wonderings of the heart and mind, to the mystery of God, the answers of the worldview of Christianity and back again to wonder. Despite the negative realities of Ravi Zacharias’ personal life, I find his work has a poetic ability to communicate theology and apologetics drenched in wonder itself. It does pain us to find out those with such beautiful minds or spirits often seem to harbor much darkness as well. I guess even the dismaying realities in life can leave us wondering too.

Regardless, today Zacharias notes that in his life he had traveled much of the world, and seen the cities and monuments of human accomplishment, but despite all he had seen in the realm of human creation, it was the raw formations of nature; the fingerprints of God, which inspired in him the most wonder and awe. I have felt such things a few times while being in nature, the first time was with an experience most people have. I remember being a child looking up at a clear night sky and thinking ‘wow’. This is often the time when people first get that feeling of being small. Some call it, “insignificance”, I do not like that phrasing. For some reason, there came this point where I heard from people and on tv programs, “look at the universe and you feel so insignificant.” (paraphrasing many voices here). If you have felt that way, don’t feel down, I think it natural, but that feeling is like milk for children, that feeling should call to you to move, to think more, beyond, and into significance. There is a wonderful meme I want to you to read, here it is.

The devotional begins with: Psalm 104:24-25,31-32

How many are works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number – living things both large and small… May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works – he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

Second Thought: I have always wanted to live in the mountains. A few years ago, my wife and I drove across Canada. In was an amazing trip. When we got out to the far west, Western Alberta and Eastern British Columbia area, I instantly felt as if I was home. I grew up in south-western Ontario, so there is no reason that I should have felt that way, but for some reason I did. I remember my wife and I, at one point in our trip, stood at the base of a water fall from the side of a mountain edge and as we looked at that the tranquil beauty that resulted from the cascading waters, I could not help but feel as if we were standing in heaven. I do, some days, wish that I could relocate and live out my days out west, maybe one day my wife and I will. Who knows what the future has in store?

But you do not need to go to mountains to find the beauty of God’s work, it is all around us and of course over our heads. One of the second times I felt that awe, an awe so grand that you feel small or helpless, I was working on a berry farm. I worked in the “pick your own” berry field. One day as I was directing people to their spots to get the prize raspberries, on our nice sunny day, suddenly and rapidly a storm rolled overhead. The switch from sunny to stormy was so rapid, that it looked like the scene in the Lion King when the clouds move to form the face of Mufasa. In that moment awe overtook me, there was such a frightening beauty to the storm cloud, it took my breath away. I think there is such beauty in the world because we have the image of God within us, the image of God that we're formed with, and that image is responding to the will and creative force of God which is present in all of creation.

Continual Work: Spend some time today finding something in creation to wonder about in relation to God. Think about the majesty that God must have to create the little things and the big things, from the micro crystals that make up the sand of our beached to the gas giants that burn in space forming the heavenly bodies that paint our night sky.

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I have been following much of the news lately, and I see more and more people do not look at the wonder at each other. We no longer see the image of God looking back at us, we no longer seem to love our neighbor, and definitely not our enemies. My goal today and for the next while is to remind people to look past all the garb in their tensions and see the beauty in the eyes staring back at them.

Prayer for your day: Lord, hear our prayer this day, open our eyes that we might see the beauty in this world, but more than just seeing, we need to feel it, we need to think about it and wonder to the fullest depths of our spirits. Let your voice open us up to the wonders of this world. Amen.

Artistic Close:  When I ever feel the feeling of awe, I often think to the ending scene of a movie about St. Francis of Assisi. There is a wonderful song that ends the film. Click this link to hear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRDxpmV27p8