The wonder of wonder!

Early last Tuesday after I had walked Christine to the railway station I saw a couple walking a toddler in a pram. The child was chuckling and laughing, even though it was chilly and I remembered the comment “that children are typically much happier than us adults”. My own experience and observation of life has confirmed this. This is not to say that adults are never happy and children never unhappy but typically it seems that it is at least easier for a child to be happy than us adults.Read to a little child from a book and the expectation of a knock on the door, the wonder of a beautiful garden, the possibility of a swim at the beach or the promise of an ice cream, quickly evokes a sense of wonder.Sadly the older we get wonder can so easily slip into boredom, boredom into loss if interest, loss of interest into cynicism and cynicism into despair.The evidence is that this process is accelerating with children unable to experience wonder in the ordinary pleasures of life. Psychologist Dr Arch Hart has documented this tragic spiral in his book “Thrilled to Death”. Anhedonia is the term he uses to describe the growing process, so prevalent amongst adults, but increasingly so amongst children and teenagers, that leads to an inability to enjoy pleasure (hedonism) from the ordinary things in life. Much of the blame for this malady is multitasking, especially with electronic media. Remedies include: enjoying the creation around us, taking time for face-to-face relationships and reflecting on God’s promises.God’s promises found in scripture are a constant source of wonder for us. Take for example, the teaching about God which we call the TRINITY and affirm Sunday to Sunday in the creeds. That there is a God who has made Himself known as One who has always existed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a source of sheer delight and wonder. The affirmation “ God is Love” (1 John 4:16) only makes sense if there is love within the Godhead (the Three persons). God did not create us in His image because He needed someone to love but because there was already a deep love between the three person of the Godhead. The same is true of His great rescue program through the gospel.Consider the wonder of:The Father inviting us to become His children despite out rebellion. The Son making this possible through His atoning death that turns the Father’s wrath from us onto Himself. J.I Packer’s famous three word summary of the New Testament is profoundly simple yet full of wonder “adoption through propitiation” – (Knowing God, p 94)The Holy Spirit  who opened my hard heart and gave me the ability to turn back to God and trust Christ highlights the marvel of God’s grace.Ravi Zacharias wrote an excellent book called ‘Recapture The Wonder” which is full of hope and happiness building truths. One of his phrases highlights the sense of wonder, joy and happiness that is ours in Christ: “Only God could humble us without humiliating us and exalt us without flattering us.” (p118).How good is this! So good that it is worth taking time to read, meditate, obey and pray on these wonder-full truths of scripture.Greetings in Christ Peter