Sense of Wonder

When I normally come back from Denver I like to collate all my experiences and thoughts and musings. This time is slightly different. Yes we all had a fantastic time and yes we saw and did a lot of things and yes we did meet a lot of interesting and awesome people but there is just this one thing God did that blew me away.

And really it has nothing to do with Denver and could have happened anywhere it just so happens I was in Denver at the time.

It starts with a book by Brennan Manning called 'The Ragamuffin Gospel', which by the way is worth reading. In it Manning uses the story of a monk who asks God for a sense of wonder. Now the story isn't a major part in the book but it really grabbed by heart and made my head hurt. It made me realise I had no sense of wonder and amazement any more - maybe I lost it or maybe I didn't have it in the first place, either way I wanted it.

So I decided to pray to God for a sense of wonder every day last week. Monday and Tuesday passed and the world seemed to look the same. Wednesday however, now that's a different story!

I got up early (6am) and went to an early morning Bible study. I was sat round a table with older homeless guys, listening to them talk about their daily struggles. It just hit me all of a sudden that I was sitting next to someone made in God's image and who God deeply cares about and loves. God's heart was breaking over the men here and how they'd been treated, how they'd been let down and how they were living their lives. I had to fight back the tears.

Later on that day we had to look after two little babies. One of which is currently being fostered. The second child never leaves his family and so when I, a complete stranger with a weird accent pick him up, he screams. Now I have never heard a baby scream like this - he didn't stop for about an hour and a half and I tried everything to make him stop, short of an exorcism. God revealed something to me through this little screaming monster. I know at times I've temporarily left the side of my heavenly father, maybe gone my own way. In these times it's not me who screams in that absence, it's God. He screams for us like this little boy screams for his family. Little Eduardo eventually went to sleep, I think he gave up. God however doesn't give up.

Also on this wednesday it snowed. Snow in Colorado is awesome. Literally awesome. I can't really descirbe it, you'll have to come and see for yourself. Snow comes down fast and settles very quickly and before you know it you're in Narnia (pre Aslan). It's a pretty great sight to see.

I got to the end of Wednesday and realised God had answered my prayer about wonder and he'd opened my eyes to what he sees everyday. According to Wiki 'Sense of Wonder' is "an emotional reaction when one confronts, understands or sees a concept anew in the context of fresh information."

Thank you God for new eyes.