With Christmas this month, it is a great time to wake to the wonder all around us. A friend wrote an article about learning from the Book of God’s Word (The Bible) and the Book of God’s Work (Creation and all around us). Don’t let this be an ordinary Christmas, take time and quiet enough to have an attack of wonder.

We can be sitting at home in our ordinary, undramatic life, when suddenly we are struck with an attack of wonder. It can begin in a moment as you watch your little one sleeping peacefully or when you stop to watch the pattern of raindrops on your window. A simple thought or the flash of a half-remembered dream may be the spark. Whatever it is, the effects can ripple throughout your lifetime.

Michael P. Gallagher said, “The attack of wonder is only the beginning of a huge adventure. The strangeness of romance hits you in the midst of the predictable daily world. When that surprise strikes you, you begin to see as if for the first time things that you have known all along, including yourself and your paths of possibility. You remember what you had forgotten. You realize there has to be more than this. You awaken to a refreshed future, to calls and promises, and not just for little you, but for this whole world.” (1)

Seeing life beyond the mundane, trusting an unlimited, caring God, and looking forward to a future after this earthly life gives meaning to the aches and small joys of daily life. Without a glimpse of the eternal, none of this makes sense.

Gallagher continued, “Of course the explosive reality at the core of Christianity is that God did not leave us alone to face this . . . The coming of Christ, when you let it in, continues to shock us. . .Why has this story illumined millions of lives? Because this is not a God of colourless, cosmic control but a God of Love. And this fits the lock of our human hearts and questions. Faced with Risen Love our responses unite childlike simplicity and never ending complexity, the wonder of silence and the wonder of many words trying to do justice and make sense. ”

I urge you, during this Christmas season, to open your heart and mind to an attack of wonder. Think about the reality of Christ. See God’s handiwork in nature. Be inspired by the great variety of flowers, or birds, or snowflakes. Let God stretch your imagination. Stop and look and appreciate the world around you. Take time to look at your child’s tiny fingernails or touch that silky hair or hear his coos and sighs. Only a loving God could have fashioned your baby. Only a loving God could have sent One special baby to change the world forever.

Many blessings to you and your family this December!

Diane
(1)An Attack of Wonder devotion