After another year of head-shaking, mind-numbing, faith-challenging world events, I thought I would re-post my Christmas message from 2021 as a reminder of the wonder we should all feel at this glorious time of year.
The Want of Wonder
G.K. Chesterton once lamented, “The world will never starve for want of wonders, but only for want of wonder.” Indeed, there is no greater joy than experiencing the wonder of a child at Christmas. Yet, alas, we are no longer children ourselves. 'Tis a shame.
I'm not sure who or what to blame for our grown-up complacency and nonchalance--maybe its just the nature of adulthood. Whatever it is that keeps us from enjoying the wonder and excitement that we used to experience as children, it has caused cynics like Samuel Johnson to rationalize the loss of our childlike sense of wonder by declaring that wonder is nothing but "the effect of novelty upon ignorance."
What a sad statement! His opinion is that our lack of wonder is evidence that we are getting wiser, more sophisticated, more worldly--as if that were a good thing. In other words, he is saying, "Wonder? Bah, humbug!"
In his book The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning blames our "wonderless" condition squarely on science and the denial of a supernatural God.
"There was a time in the not too distant past when a thunderstorm caused grown men to shudder and feel small. But God is being edged out of His world by science. The more we know about meteorology, the less inclined we are to pray during a thunderstorm. Airplanes now fly above, below, and around them. Satellites reduce them to photographs. What ignominy--if a thunderstorm could experience ignominy! Reduced from theophany to nuisance!"
Christmas is a time when the wonder of God cannot be sidelined, ignored or diminished - not even by science. Christmas is a time when our long-lost childlike sense of amazement should come rushing back to us, saturating our senses and filling us with giddy joy and wide-eyed wonder again.
The Wonder of Jesus
For the balance of this post, in an effort to stave off our adult tendency to be unimpressed and to rekindle the wonder that the arrival of Jesus should evoke in our hearts, In a brief excerpt from a message by John Piper (”Reawaken Your Wonder for Jesus” - Feb 6, 2019), I've grabbed a few select passages from our Bibles. Enjoy.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). “By him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). “He upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3), and “in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17).
He speaks, and “the wind and the sea obey him” (Mark 4:4). He commands unclean spirits, and they come out (Luke 4:36)! He rebukes fevers, and they depart (Luke 4:39). He causes the blind to see, and the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk, and lepers are made clean (Luke 7:22). He commands the dead, and they live (John 11:43-44).
And yet, “though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).
And when that time approached, he said, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:18). So “after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3).
“God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
Final Thought
Reflecting on the birth and the life of Jesus should always kindle the childlike wonder in all of us. Don't let science (or anything else) edge out your sense of wonder this season.
Merry Christmas to all!
Next Post: TBD
Here's a link to the most recent past post: https://www.bibleinsights.net/post/post-63-seeing-with-the-eyes-of-your-heart
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