Forty-six eyes were glued to the presenter. Jaws dropped, and twenty-three first-graders leaned forward, not even aware of the oohs and ahs that escaped their lips. Their teacher breathed deeply, enjoying a rare moment of deep satisfaction. She had finally found something that captured the imagination of every student. They were in a state of wonder, which would hopefully stir up enough curiosity to motivate each of them to learn something about rare, colorful lizards and how they hunt for food. It was a wonder-ful moment.
The world is full of things people can explore in wonder. There are so many things humans don’t know or understand about the world. We have still not explored all of space or even all of our oceans. We still don’t know how to cure the common cold or many other, more deadly diseases. There is much we don’t understand about the human mind. We have yet to solve many social dilemmas. Life is difficult for the unadventurous. It is stressful for those who feel the need to understand or control everything. Because it is wonder-ful.
Most of us happily engage in activities we don’t fully understand. We are involved in relationships we don’t have very much control over. We use devices that are so complicated we cannot fix them or figure out how they actually work. We live in a world filled with wonder, embracing the unknown and pursuing the unexplored. As a result, life is interesting, surprising and engaging.
Ironically, when it comes to exploring God and the spirit world, people sometimes suddenly demand to know and understand everything before proceeding. They often refuse to believe anything they cannot control or at least graph and categorize. As a result, Christians and churches sometimes feel pressured to stay in shallow waters and avoid anything supernatural. But that was not the kind of Christianity Jesus introduced to his followers. Jesus introduced an exciting, miraculous, wonder-ful faith.
When reading the Gospels and the book of Acts, it becomes obvious that Jesus and the first century believers embraced things like the incarnation, deliverance from demons, divine healing, the gifts of the spirit and the resurrection, as part of the wonder-ful life of faith. The historical accounts do not record believers asking Jesus to explain how he rose again, how he walked through walls after resurrection, how he ate and was physically handled and then walked through walls. They just lived in faith and experienced the supernatural. They went on to die for a kingdom they could not fully understand – because it was too wonder-ful.
Think about it, if we understood it all, would it be all that special? I would rather serve a God I do not fully understand than practice a religion made and controlled by mere man. I am thankful for a wonder-ful God who I can trust with all the things I can’t quite get my head around.