“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”
~Moulin Rouge
A long time ago, they used to bring this giant inflatable bubble to our elementary schools. Some of you may know exactly what I’m talking about. There was a small passage that you had to crawl through in order to reach the dome area. Once inside, the teacher would operate this projector that was situated in the center of the dome. Slides of magnificent star constellations would completely fill the canopy above us. Our teacher would then explain what each of these constellations meant and where you could see them in the sky.
Looking back, this is one of the absolute coolest memories I have from Annie Belle Clark Elementary School. I was completely in awe. Never before had I seen something so glorious and truly recognized it as being something far greater than me. I’m reminded of the TV miniseries Roots, when Kunta Kinte is held above his father’s head while facing the great expanse of the African night sky. His father says, “Behold, the only thing that is greater than you.” I remember going out and looking at the sky significantly more after sitting in the planetarium.
I used to ask myself and others which would you prefer? A home at the beach or in the mountains? I would always end up saying neither. I recognized that if I lived in either place too long, I might lose my sense of wonder for it. It would become mundane to me. It would become ordinary…
So we’ve traveled the world for some 8 months now and my eyes have seen so many amazing things. Things that make your mouth drop, things that fill you with awe and wonder, usually. At least when you look or think about visiting these places they are extremely exciting, but then after being there for awhile or seeing so many of these places, they can lose their luster. Their ability to captivate you wears off. I’m not just speaking of man-made wonders, or the God-made universe, I’m talking about gazing into the eyes of an orphan or the shacks that are creatively designed. It really baffles you when it’s your first experience, but then….it can become ordinary.
As I’ve turned the pages of Brennan Manning’s The Ragamuffin Gospel, I’ve realized something that has happened in my life that may have also happened in yours. I wrote about it to some extent in one of my Thailand blogs, but it seems fitting to bring it back now that I’ve been through most of the Race. I’d like to share an excerpt from Manning’s book:
“By and large, our world has lost its sense of wonder. We have grown up. We no longer catch our breath at the sight of a rainbow or the scent of a rose, as we once did. We have grown bigger and everything else smaller, less impressive. We get blase and worldly-wise and sophisticated. We no longer run our fingers through water, no longer shout at the stars or make faces at the moon. Water is H2O, the stars have been classified, and the moon is not made of green cheese… There was once a time in the not too distant past when thunderstorms caused grown men to shudder and feel small. But God is being edged out of His world by science…We miss the experience of awe, reverence and wonder…Creation doesn’t calm our troubled spirits, restore our perspective, or delight us in every part of our being. It reminds us instead of mundane chores: changing the page on the calendar or ordering our snow tires. We must rediscover the gospel of grace and the world of grace.”
That is it. When I think about my youth, I remember how astounded I was at the simplest things. I was discovering things for the first time. But at some point, we stop discovering. We view things in a way that says “been there, done that.” When if you really think about it, it’s totally false. I mean, scientists continue to discover new ways of doing things, going further than what they ever had before. Why don’t we do that when it comes to God and his magnificent and awesome creation that restores peace and calms our troubled spirits? The wonderment of God is endless! It is intricate, yet vastly huge. He says in his Word that even the starry hosts sing of his glory. They sing? Yes, they sing!
I never want to miss that again. I want to be amazed. I want to always find the extraordinary it what seems ordinary. When we slow down and sit in the presence of our Lord, we hear his voice. We understand his grace. We can see it, hear it, and taste it. He wants to restore us. He wants to be the place where we find rest, why don’t we take him up on his offer instead of further busying ourselves? Study his world, slow down, be awestruck by him. Listen to him. If we understand his love for us, in complete awe and wonder, it prompts us to love others in greater ways. I have seen it firsthand with my teammates, with myself, and with people we’ve come into contact with. They are awestruck by God, how he moves, how he shows himself in the craziest circumstances. They can’t help but act on his grace. This is the greatest thing we could ever learn. To understand the love of God, to love him, and to love others in return. That is the gospel. That is Christ on earth.
“Filled with wonder, awestruck wonder at the mention of your name. Jesus, your name is power, breath and living water, such a marvelous mystery.”
~ The Revelation Song
