It is still winter as I write this. A couple of days before, we had a high temperature of 83 degrees. As warm as that was, it wasn't a record. It only took a couple of days and here we are back again at 32 degrees. Every once in a while I spy a big, bushy, grey squirrel bounding from limb to limb of the trees along our fence line. Every so often I'll hear a sparrow chirp, or see one flitter down from the telephone wires. I have slowed down enough in my life that I can spend time appreciating the wonder of life all around me. The beauty of it all takes my breath away.
From the time I was a child I've loved the way things work. Shopping cart wheels were mysteries to me as a toddler. The ocean, cars, sunsets, and almost everything about life amazed me. When my mother bought me a set of encyclopedias at six years old, I spent hours looking at the pictures, and then spent even more hours reading them once I could read. Nothing was safe from my wonder! Cereal boxes, peanut butter jar labels, magazines, artwork, photographs, sculpture, a thousand other things that I can't even begin to list. The wonder of chemistry, particle physics, combustion engines, cranes, watches, filled my moments with a hunger for the next discovery. How does it work, what makes it move, why does it melt, why does it burn? Every question pushed me deeper and deeper into wonder. When I turned 13 we got a horse, and I used to sit for hours watching it move around in the corral.
Still, of all of this that we have before us, the wonder of God abides longer, and to this day, He still causes my heart to race when I sit in wonder of all that I know He has done. Because of my love of science, I've had moments where I questioned, and even doubted His existence. I would be a liar if I didn't admit it. Then I would read an article about how fragile this little planet is, or how precarious our existence upon it is, and realize that this mortal plane wasn't an accident. Whether you are an 'old earther' or 'young earther,' the same truth is that God molded, shaped, and formed this planet to sustain us. There is a Jewish statement that goes something like; This world was made for me. From the smallest speck of single cell life, to the giant blue whales swimming in the ocean, this world exists because of His design.
Whenever I see pictures of the far-flung galaxies, and the brilliance of their fine balance, I can only sit quietly in wonder. Pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope don't dissuade me of God's handwork, instead I find myself in breathless wonder as I see the beauty spread out before me. BUT, more than that, I sit in wonder of the human minds that dreamed of that beautiful gleaming instrument and launched it into orbit. Did they expect to see what they saw? Then when they found out it had a flaw in it, they were able to repair it while it orbited our tiny blue planet spinning gracefully in orbit around the sun. No other species on this planet has done this. Ever!!!!! I actually get angry at these shows that try and prove aliens gave us the technology we have. As if an alien species who could travel across the vastness of outer space would not set up shop and live here. Please!!!! WE WOULD!
I sit in wonder when I hear a musical instrument played with the skill and precision only a master musician can produce. I can still be moved to tears by philharmonic orchestras, and be swept away by a good choir. I can be brought to joyous celebration by the masterful music of a good rock band. Don't even get me talking about Celtic music sung by an amazing soprano, or tenor.
I sit in wonder as I sit alongside a babbling brook, or the whoosh of a waterfall. The things and places I've been in my life are memories I can visit anytime I want to.
As I close in on the exit door of my life, I am thankful for the wonder that God has allowed me to enjoy. Nothing can compare to the feeling of holding my wife's hand as we walk from the car to wherever we are going. That one simple act has the power to calm my spirit, and make my heart race at the same time. Cuddling up to her on a cold winter night and hearing her breathing slow as she falls to sleep is still amazing to me.
Throughout my time in the Air Force I never grew tired of seeing huge aircraft lifting off from the runway into the clear blue sky. I've watched rockets and missiles launched into space, seen huge cargo ships making way through ports as I wondered how all this metal stayed afloat.
I sit in wonder at how my hands type these words from my brain to this computer monitor, and from that to a piece of paper. I am amazed at how these words mean something to someone else who may read them.
You see, I believe in God. I sit in wonder at all He has created. Every dance of color, every hope, every dream, every imagination is formed in me because of his creative power.
