Recovering Wonder and Awe

In an old Peanuts comic strip, Snoopy’s brother Spike who lives in the desert is sitting with his back against a cactus. He’s writing a letter, “At night the sun goes down, and the stars come out; and then in the morning, the sun comes up again. It’s so exciting to live in the desert.”

I love Spike’s sense of wonder and awe at the natural world. In our fast-paced world, filled with technological wonders, sometimes we take for granted the beauty that surrounds us on every side. Sunrises and sunsets, beautiful cloud formations and star clusters abound. But often, we fail to notice – much less be amazed.

In his book, This Sunrise of Wonder, Michael Mayne writes this to his grandchildren: “If I could have waved a fairy grandfather’s wand at your birth and wished upon you just one gift it would not have been beauty or riches or a long life: It would have been the gift of wonder.” (Michael Mayne, This Sunrise of Wonder, p. 11)

Today I invite you to recover your sense of wonder. Try to get outside even if it is for a brief moment. Breathe the fresh air. Smell the rain or marvel at the snow. Watch the clouds drift across the sky. Remember the words of the psalmist:

O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!… When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?

Let us pray: Open our spirits again, O God, that we might be moved and awestruck by your creation, and by the beauty of music and art, and by the love of friends and family.
Through this beauty, draw us closer to you. We give you all thanks and praise this day. Amen.