Wide-Eyed Wonder

Scripture: Luke 11:33-36

33 “No one lights a lamp, then hides it in a drawer. It’s put on a lamp stand so those entering the room have light to see where they’re going. 34 Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. 35 Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. 36 Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room.” (Luke 11:33-36 The Message)

Sometimes I wish I didn’t know so much! I’ve been a Christ-follower a long time, and I know more than I want to know about people and organizations and life. I don’t mean that in a cynical way. I remember what it was like a few years ago to be with my pre-teen grandsons Jesse and Jude, and my two-years-younger grandson Zane, and see them wide-eyed with wonder over something new! It creates a longing in my heart for them and for me. They simply experienced things! They didn’t think, “Oh yeah, I know how that works,” or, “That’s just a trick. It’s not real!” Remembering those times with my grandsons makes me think, “How can I get back the simple child-like wonder I once had?” And then I think, “Now, how can I help them re-capture that wide-eyed wonder and not become as jaded as the rest of us?”

I still get excited over a red-gold sunrise, over the beauty of the high desert, over the simple pleasure of sitting by a campfire or walking with my dog Jake in the forest. I still rejoice with the angels over someone’s excited story of new-found forgiveness and faith in Jesus! I still anticipate the sense of God’s presence as a congregation worships together. I still believe a kind word can warm a cold heart and that a simple act of kindness can make a difference in an unkind world.

I want to live my life wide-eyed in wonder! I believe that simple, child-like faith is possible even for someone who has been around as long as I have! Faith is a choice; and simplicity is also, to a large degree, a simple choice.

How’s your Wide-Eyed Wonder quotient? Friends, let’s choose to open our eyes as wide as the eyes of a child on her first visit to the zoo! Let’s choose to wonder once again at the creativity and imagination of our God! Let’s choose to see God’s gracious hand both in the micro and the macro! Let’s choose to live Wide-Eyed in Wonder!

Prayer:

Father, I open my eyes wide today to see your wonders in the world around me, in the people I talk with and work with today, and in the opportunities you give me to encounter your presence and see the evidence of your hand at work in my world.  Please help me to affect and infect others with child-like joy and delight. Amen!