A Sense Of Wonder

Lectio:

Scripture reading:  Luke 2:8-20

Meditatio:

“Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said, “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.” Luke 2:9

The world has been turned upside down by the corona virus but nothing will change until our stony hearts are changed into fleshy hearts. Our stony hearts can only be changed when our hedonistic minds are blown away by God. We need a sense of wonder to seek and to live a life of A.W.E – a life of:

Attention to the heart of Jesus by

Waiting on God in silence and

Examining our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Each of us will feel the touch of God in different ways  –  some of us through serving others, some through worship and devotional practices, some through a charismatic encounter with the Holy Spirit, some through great suffering, and some through deep silence. But what is most important is our witness of God’s power and presence in a world enveloped in darkness by sin and evil.

God guided the wise men from the East to the Christ Child by a shining star¹ but chose the lowly shepherds to reveal the sights and sounds of heaven with the choirs of angels. This is more than a sentimental Christmas story. It is a story that reaffirmed my need for a shepherd’s heart of humility and reverence – to spend time waiting on the Lord and watching for God’s presence in the mundane activities of my life.

The shepherds were not distracted nor daunted by their spectacular experience of heaven but went to look for the child in the manger and to share with Mary what the angels had told them. And she must have been much edified as she kept these things in her heart and thought about them often.² 

The story of the shepherds is to bring us to Jesus who is our Shepherd of Love.³ We are like sheep who have gone astray.⁴ We need the grace of God to see that we are spiritually blind and have lost the way. We need wondering hearts to replace our wandering hearts. We need a mind blowing experience like the shepherds – seeing and hearing choirs of angels praising God, while they were watching their sheep – for the love of God to be born in our hearts.

In a world darkened by fear of the tiny Covid-19 virus, we desperately need to hear once again the good news of great joy that the angel gave to the shepherds when Christ was born – to see and ponder on the wonder of God’s love becoming incarnate in a baby lying in a manger.

The A.I.  of spiritual formation is the Attitude of humility and the Intention of desire.  We need humility and desire to embark on the journey, like the wise men from the east and the shepherds to the manger, to seek the Christ Child in our hearts.  This is a journey of the inner way – from experiencing life with our minds to being one with Christ in our hearts. Our brains need by changed by our hearts so that our brains can change our actions. This is the primary objective of the practice of silence – to bring our minds into our hearts.

“Heartfelt silence” has been described as one of the most powerful forms of worship that can leave a person awestruck with God’s glory.⁵ The practice of silence in the Christian tradition is not to empty our minds of our thoughts but to make room in our hearts for the mind of Christ. This is the best way to keep ourselves from becoming G.O.A.T.s  – trying to be the Greatest Of All Time.  Only then can we be S.H.E.E.P – Seeing Heaven Everyday in Every Person. We will live with a sense of wonder as the Lord our Shepherd provides, cares and leads us to find rest in God’s loving embrace. When we turn back to God and rest in Him, we will live joyful lives that are filled with awe as we declare:

“O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder, 
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made; 
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, 
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee, 
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee, 
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!”

Oratio:

Lord, help me to look for the wonders of Your love in the small and simple events of my life.

Contemplatio:

How does the fear of the Lord prepare my heart for the big and spectacular wonder of God’s Power?

How am I looking for the small and simple wonders of God’s Presence in my daily life?

Song of Praise

How Great Thou Art

SDG

Notes:

1. Matthew 2:1-11

2. Luke 2:19

3. Psalms 23:1

4.  Isaiah 53:6

  5. Larry  Randolph shared the view that every part of our being has a spiritual bandwidth. When our hearts are in tune with inner silence before the Creator, every aspect of our body quietly speaks. Our cells, minds, and hearts all talk – as they cry out to God without intelligible words.  (The Physics of Heaven, page 104)