Reconnecting with Wonder in the Christian Life
We live in an age of cynicism. We doubt, question, and sneer. We have seen it all, heard it all, and grown jaded. We reject the idea that the perfect is anything more than a veneer over imperfection.
This is, by no means, a Christian perspective. In a world grown jaded with abuse, Christians alone know of a source of never-ending wonder, miracles that never grow dimmer and never fail. Such wonder, of course, is found in God. It is seen especially in his wondrous works and wonderful words.
If you don’t have a sense of wonder, then your spiritual life is blighted. Something is desperately wrong and sick at the root. Do not imagine that everything is fine. If you have lost the sense of curiosity and amazement that you once had, it is not because you have grown more godly, but less so.
Wonder manifests itself repeatedly throughout Psalm 119. “Open my eyes,” cries the Psalmist, “that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (v. 18). And in verse 27, he requests, “Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works.” In Hebrew it is one word – “I will meditate on your wonders.”
Meditation on wonders is the antithesis of worldly-mindedness. He who contemplates God’s wonders occupies a different realm than the one whose soul grovels in material concerns. We can see this from the progression of the Psalmist in verses 25-27. “My soul clings to the dust,” he cries in despair, but – if God will be merciful to him – “I will meditate on your wondrous works.”
What wonders there are in this realm of mystery! If we can break free from the ‘dust’ of this world, our souls will rise to behold God’s wonders. It is the incomprehensibility of a God who holds the galaxies together, swaying the universe and a billion stars. It is the marvel of a God who humbles himself to behold the things that are on earth. It is the enigma of a God-man who bears our ignominy. It is the glory of an eternal plan by which God uses a golden chain to lift mankind to glory through foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification. These are wonders that deserve lifetimes of thought, and which would still remain unplumbed.
But without spiritual enlivening, we cannot see these wonders. The Christian life is merely another fable, a story to be chuckled at by the jaded. Cynical Christians will shrug, unimpressed by the majesty of these truths. All this, unless the God of wonders drops the scales from earthly eyes.
