As I ponder the start of spring, I can’t help but think of the words of the theologian Karl Barth, “I find myself confronted by the wondrous reality of the living God.”
Although I can’t see all of nature at work, what I do see marvels me. The days are getting longer, sun rays warmer, and after a long gray winter, the world will grow green again!
Yet unless we deliberately stop to behold the signs of the season, we will miss them. The demands of everyday living can distract us from beholding God’s wondrous works. Even in the midst of hardships, if we look… we will find God’s miracles all around us. In the book of Job, a younger man tells him, “Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God.”
In his autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela recalls the scene when he laid eyes on his granddaughter for the first time.
During the 14th year of imprisonment, Mandela gained permission for a visit from his daughter. She ran across the room and embraced him. He had not held her since she was a young girl.
Then his daughter placed her own newborn baby into his callused, leathery hands. He wrote, “To hold a newborn baby, so vulnerable and soft in my rough hands, hands that for too long had held only picks and shovels, was profound joy. I don’t think a man was ever happier to hold a baby that day.”
Whether we stop to embrace a newborn baby, observe spring’s tender sprouts, or see the sun setting at the end of a busy day, our spirit is renewed with hope as we consider God’s awesome handiwork. “His wondrous works declare that He is near.” (Psalm 75:1)
Albert Einstein said, “One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.”
Do you have a holy curiosity? What in the world around us lifts your spirit? How has the wonder of God’s marvelous works shaped your spiritual life? Tell us your story.
Lord, no matter what a day holds, help me to stop and pray that I might see and experience Your wondrous works!
