The Wonder of Children

As we explore the idea of Discerning Wonder, it would be a huge oversight not to talk about the wonder of children. In the very first article on this website we talked about the meaning of the word wonder.

WONDER - a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

No one express this true feeling of surprise and admiration better than a young child. Young children seem to naturally live in world filled with wonder. Everything is new and amazing and remarkable to them. They get excited about the little things we have learned to take for granted.

When we are talking about Wonder, we would definitely be better off if we recaptured some of that child-like amazement about the things around us. In the middle of frustrating traffic, if I would take a deep breath and wonder about the ability that we have to drive down the road, even if it’s at a crawl, I would be a little better. Wonder doesn’t change our situation, but reminds us of the beauty and blessings around us.

Just like we can so easily lose our wonder in day-to-day life as we get older, we can lose our wonder in our spiritual lives as well. We can begin to take for granted how amazing God is and how wonderful His works are. This is yet another area where we would be wise to recapture the wonder of children.

We are not alone in needing to learn this lesson. Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell about the disciples seeing Jesus shining like the sun and talking with Moses and Elijah and then hearing the voice of God. To say that the disciples encountered something “beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable” would be an understatement. Each of the three accounts says that they were “terrified”. You would think that with this amazing and powerful experience, the disciples would be reminded of the greatness of God and filled with wonder for days, but just like we often do, they quickly forgot and moved on to other things. Very quickly after each of these accounts, these three gospel writers tell us that the disciples had begun talking, or maybe even arguing, about which one of them was the greatest. Really? Didn’t they just see that God is the greatest? Oh how quickly we lose our wonder! Matthew 18:1-6 describes what happened next like this:

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, ‘Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

So, just as they are arguing over which of them is the greatest, Jesus tells them that they need to become like children by humbling themselves. Child-like wonder begins with humility. Everything is new to young children. They are constantly learning and don’t think they’ve already got it all figured out. They are easily impressed and excited by the things they see and experience. We need more humility. We need to remember that we don’t have it all figured out. We’re not God and we don’t need to pretend like we are. We need to keep learning. We need to stop and actually take in what God is doing and has done all around us. When we do that, then we will be impressed and excited and filled with wonder like little children. Humility leads to wonder and wonder leads to gratitude and worship.

While these words are easy to say and grasp, they aren’t always easy to remember or put into practice. Once again we see that we are in good company because in Mark 10:13-16 just a short time after this conversation about having humility and being like and receiving children in Jesus’s name this happened:

“And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, ‘Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.’ And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.”

The words “He was indignant” always make me smile a little. He had just had this conversation with them and they clearly didn’t get it. Of course He was indignant. As amusing as I find those words, the ones that catch my attention even more are these: “for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these…whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” It makes me ask myself, “Am I humbling myself and coming to Him with child-like wonder to receive the Kingdom He is offering?”

1 John 3:1 reminds us not only of God’s great love for us, but that we are His children:

“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God, and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”

Let’s live (and wonder) like His children today!