“We live in a world with a withered sense of wonder”, said colonel James Irwin, the man who walked on the moon and viewed the earth from space. His comment is an accurate assessment of a generation drowning in information yet starved of knowledge.
Where has the wonder gone? It is a question worth asking this Christmas holiday.
If you take time to think, I believe the greatest source of wonder is the story of the God-Man, Jesus of Nazareth. The Bible writers are quite restrained in their choice of words when recording the birth of Jesus. Not so the angels. These heavenly beings can’t keep quiet as they witness the most remarkable thing they have known. Heaven’s curtains part and the skies are filled with what must have been a virtuoso performance. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” Now that is wonder.
James Irwin, who lamented our withered sense of wonder, was a committed Christian who marveled not just at the mystery of our universe, but in its Maker.
Let me leave the last word on Christmas to Robert Boyd, former professor of Astrophysics at University College, London. In a poem entitled “Creation”, specially written for Christmas, he wrote:
The mystery of being, still unsolved / By all our science and philosophy / Fills me with breathless wonder, and the God / From whom it all continually proceeds / Calls forth my worship and shall worship have / But love in incarnation draws my soul / To humble adoration of a Babe; / ‘In this was manifest the love of God.’
Our wonder also grows when we look back to this almost past year. God was with us! Why did he chose us to be part of such a great mission, we don’t know. We wonder at how He works, how deep He goes, what marvelous transformation He can do in the people we work with.
