“And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying…” (Lk 5:26a) [To be continued].
Outward life—with all its shapes and varieties of people and places and creatures and circumstances—has always interested me. It is a fine blessing to realize that all of life is a miracle and that the simple is meant to have the same effect on a man as the grand. The sight of a majestic sunrise, understandably, takes our breath away. But observe a thing the right way long enough and even a commonplace greeting between strangers, or, say, an unenthused beetle walking across the sidewalk, reveal continual moments of extraordinary things going on.
Wait a minute! This sounds like another of those bleary-eyed rambles from a sentimental sort. I am sentimental, so yes. But no. Because while I, and likely you, are interested in outward life in all its various forms, I don’t think every one is. And that’s a problem. Some move through this world and, through tremendous afflictions or bad circumstances or, possibly, it’s simply because of dispositions inclined a certain way, they either slumber on through or chew up the life around them and just spit it back out, no questions asked. Something is sadly revealed through their philosophical passivity. Where there should be a spark to wonder about the abundance of miracles in this life and what, or Who (Job 12:9-10), is behind these, there seems only to be a rummaging through the world for what it offers on its barest surface. You live. You take. You die. The end. So passively contented to live at the extremes of apathy and adrenaline, a soul doesn’t have to wonder about life at all.
We can’t know this about them, of course—it is God who knows the hearts of men (1Sam 16:7). But, with God’s help, we can discern that too much reflective indifference exists in certain souls among us. And we can care enough to want to keep our eyes open for any people so disinclined—the wonder-challenged; enough to hope to get in tune with what they’re thinking and feeling, or have experienced, or have been harmed by so much; enough to pray for a chance to point them to the One who, no matter the circumstance, can ignite the spark to wonder about the life they’re living; enough, most of all, to hope and pray the day of awakening arrives when they’re filled with such awe over everything they encounter that, like those who witnessed the miracles of Jesus firsthand, they can’t help but marvel at both the simple and the grand, “saying, ‘We have seen extraordinary things today’” (Luke 5:26b).
I hope this encourages you to share the spark to wonder today.
Kevin Murray
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