Where is the Wonder?

Wonder. This seems to be a word that we hear more about during this time of year than at any other. Songs exclaim that Christmas is “the most wonderful time of year.” Movies encourage us to “recapture” the wonder of childhood. Even decorations and events are designed to help us experience wonder in a new way, as never before. Wonder can be described as the excitement of a new experience or the overwhelming awe of something beyond one’s expectations. It seems to be one of those attributes which is so especially abundant in children, perhaps because there are so many sights, sounds, and events which they have yet to experience.

Yet, regardless of how it may be marketed to suit one’s fancy, for many “wonder” is a bygone delusion. Many have become all too familiar with the harsh realities of life. Dreams have not come to pass. People have disappointed. The things which promised to fulfill one’s deepest longings have worn out. Regrets from the past have dowsed any flame of awe which once burned. The “peace on earth” promised by the angels has given way to incessant unrest within the soul. Even for those claiming faith in Christ, “the spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14) is more like a slow drip filled with reminders of what could be, what should be, but is not. And the persistent attention on “wonder” during the celebration of this season makes many suspicious that it actually can ever be had.

The Scripture’s promises regarding God’s supply of wonder toward followers of Christ are ample. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercy never comes to an end; they are new every morning…(Lamentations 3:22-23). “I [Jesus] came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). “…No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). What is the disconnect between the promises of God and the experience of the believer?

The following quote from an unlikely source will perhaps provide insight into how we can lose our wonder, and even how we might find it again.

I have said that in one respect my mind has changed during the last twenty or thirty years. Up to the age of thirty, or beyond it, poetry of many kinds…gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took great delight in Shakespeare….I have also said that formerly pictures gave me considerable, and music very great, delight. But now, for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also lost any taste for pictures or music…I retain some taste for finery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight that it formerly did…My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts…

These haunting words are from the notes of famed naturalist Charles Darwin. Though in younger years he trusted in the authority of the Bible, he would eventually reject faith in Christ. Developing the scientific theory of natural selection as a means for explaining life, the wonder of the Divine became the eventual doldrums of speculation. His provides a case study in the capture of wonder. When one dismisses the worship of the Creator for the worship of the creation, wonder dissipates.

And there is perhaps no other season in our culture in which we are more lured into this error. We exchange the worship of God for the pursuit of more things. We shelve the promises of God for the empty assurances of what we can accomplish without Him. We seek the blessings of God but reject the Blessed God. And we wonder why there is no wonder.

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ this holiday season, avoid the trappings which offer wonder but bring only disenchantment. There is only One who goes by the name “wonderful” (Judges 13:18; Isaiah 9:6). Join the shepherds in looking upon with wonder at God, who is now also man in Jesus Christ (Luke 2:15-18). And wonder at the glorious grace which He will lavish for all eternity upon those who trust in Him (Ephesians 1:7-10)!

Filled with Wonder,

Jason