Wonder

Noticing Beautiful Surprises Leads Us to a Richer Life

“A spider, Grams!” My granddaughter (age 5) gleefully called me over to see this little creature among the weeds I was discarding from my flower bed. “He is so beautiful, Grams!”

So, I don’t always use that word in describing spiders, but I do appreciate my granddaughter’s fearless enthusiasm. It is called wonder. Wonder is described by the Oxford Dictionary as a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

Children are experts at wonder. Their whole world is new with adventure and discovery. As we grow up into the world of careers and mortgages and raising families, groceries, laundry, bill paying and garden weeding, our wonder focus tends to fade away. We miss or maybe ignore those “Look at that!” moments that children can’t resist.

After my daughter wrote a blog post in January about choosing a word to focus on for the year, I was inspired to choose a 2021 word. My word, of course, is wonder. I desire to become good at wonder. I have resolved to practice keeping my eyes and ears open to marvel at the fascinating things going on around me.

Since we are (Omigosh!) halfway through the year, here’s my half year report on some of the wonders I have noticed:

Leafless gray-brown winter trees rest and wait for the awakening breath of spring. In them lies the reassuring promise that spring will come as God has promised it would (Gen. 8:22). Spring arrives and the plentiful varieties of beautiful flowers make amends for the long, long weeks of brown season. Summer follows and no paint store could possibly hold the innumerable shades of the colors of green.

Weather patterns cause the sky to entertain us with spectacular blues, grays and whites during the day and pinks, oranges and reds at sunset. Clouds from fluffy to spotty to stringy add their own interest to the display.

Watching falling rain or falling snow from inside a cozy house is somehow comforting, peaceful and calming.

Seeds placed under a bit of dirt produce carrots and kale and beets and peas and corn and potatoes and much, much more. Such marvelous rewards hidden inside the teeniest containers of life.

One person with a vision can transform scraps of fabric into a stunning quilt, an old dresser into a looks-like-new useful storage unit or a field into a neighborhood.

My grandchildren tell me stories and I am delighted at how different we all are. We see and hear the same things yet process the information in wonderfully, individually creative ways. No two of us are exactly alike. And the diversities are so lovely.

God’s Word inspires, encourages, teaches, corrects, steadies or sustains us every time we read its pages.

You see what I mean? Wonder is everywhere! These are but a few examples of all the moments of recognizing it. “Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.” (E.B. White, author of Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web) Research has shown that experiencing wonder has a positive impact on health and well-being and can lower our stress levels. Won’t you try it today? Look around. Find the little spider and marvel at its beauty.

I’m planning to continue my quest. I’ll get back to you with my year report.