Awe & Wonder...
Saturday, I stood behind a sweet girl who sat at the piano bench, practicing playing her left hand part on a new song to the imaginary tick tock of a clock in her mind that helped her keep time (heh, see what I did there?). I looked around, enjoying the experience of sharing space with a child, so pure of heart, while she learned something I grew to love so much. It truly was music to my ears. I was heavy laden at the time, very overwhelmed with the trials God has me going through on my walk right now, the all too familiar feeling of labor that I'm facing in a different essence than before. Here I was, listening to her practice skills that I had long ago mastered, and I found myself thoroughly enjoying the basics all over again. I had just finished two back to back piano lessons with her older brothers, and I had equally taken delight in working with them on their piano goals for this year through ear training exercises and drills to work on dexterity and playing two different rhythms with both hands. These have always been moments that give me life, because even more than teaching, I love it when people learn.
Still standing there behind this awesome spirit, I looked out their back sliding door to see birds congregating one by one on their deck, hovering and walking and nipping at the bird seed that I imagined their one year-old brother throwing some hours beforehand. While listening to the familiar, soothing sound of the piano keys, I caught myself in a moment of awe. I saw a red bird, then a blue bird, then what I'd call an "everyday" bird here in Michigan, followed by a bird with a loud colored beak that reminded me of the penguin in Happy Feet. This was so neat! It was almost as if I had never seen these birds before, but I knew that wasn't true. There was just some kind of new novelty about it. I could've deduced that it was because I was around these four children and their dog, or that it was due to my very new transition to motherhood and watching my 5 month old boy revel at every new encounter. However, this was something so much more visceral and personal for me...... I had recovered a sense of awe that I didn't realize I had lost.....
Thoughts of wonder and amazement filled my heart at just one simple moment. There are so many articles and studies about the power of awe. I had read one a few weeks ago that a fellow mother and wife had shared with me in one of our 4am text message convos while our infants decided it was party time and sleep was "for the birds" (haha! I'm pretty punny today, huh?).
"Wide eyed and mystified, may we be just like a child, staring at the glory of our King. May we never lose our wonder...." - Bethel Music & Amanda Cook
May we never lose our wonder....... Hmm....
When I meet a newcomer to Christ, a child that first discovers the outer manifestation of their inner spirituality, or an adult experience the Holy Spirit for the first time, I am reminded of something extraordinary and awesome (funny how we use that word so often and miss the meaning). AWE-some. The thing I'm reminded of is right here in that commonly used word - AWE. One thing these three people I often encounter share is just that - Awe.
It is marvelous, wonderful, amazing, awesome - the feeling, the sentiment, the experience. I believe that awe is a doorway to wonder and that both awe and wonder invite us to a place of love where we are not only able but willing to give more of ourselves and be fulfilled by that giving. Wonder rejuvenates the mind, revitalizes the heart, and gives us that "wide-eyed and mystified" glow of a child that Bethel's lyrics speak of.
What if we stayed right there in that place, full of transforming power, when we thought about God, witnessed His glory, read His word, looked at the way the wind blows the trees, saw the rising and falling of our loved ones abdomens whilst they sleep, observed snowfall, sat in the driver's seat of a big hunk of metal and plastic that man created with the mind God gave us so that we could get from point A to point B. There are so many opportunities for awe and wonder in this world. We simply need to look around and be aware.
Be ye transformed by the awe and the wonder, today. <3
"Spread Love, Share Joy" - AleshaNicole
