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Daily Meditation – The Gift of Wonder

"Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matt 18:3

It is hard to be like a child in the midst of COVID. So more than ever we need to take Jesus’ words to heart. That beautiful childlike ability to be curious, full of wonder, open to possibilities in the present moment. Dwelling solely in the past or the future, or letting stress or distractions become our only focus can bog us down so that we loose the ability to see God’s wonder in the presence moment.


Wonder begins in the senses, comes alive in the imagination, and flourishes in adoration of the Divine. It arises from our natural curiosity about the grand adventure of life. It increases our capacity to be a bold inner space tripper and an avid explorer of the physical world. Just think of a child. Annette Wynne captures this so well in her poem You Can Measure The Steeple,


You can measure the steeple that's close to the sky,
You can burrow to where the gold grains lie,
But a little girl's wonder is very big—
Too high to climb and too deep to dig.


There is no end to the things that can awaken our wonder, from the majesty of the night sky to the smell of lilacs in the spring to the turning of the leaves in the fall. And it is all right here, a feast of epiphanies and astonishments in the daily round of our spiritual lives.


The first step in this spiritual practice is to rejoice in the play of our senses: smell, touch, taste, hear, and see. Slow down and tune into the varied world of this and that. You'll never get anywhere with this practice by rushing.


What stops us from this gift of wonder?
o Busyness?
o Distractions?
o Spiritual blindness?
o Adulthood expectations?


I think all these barriers prevent me from fully entering the world’s wonders.


What stops you?


In the midst of stress, pause, breath, and let these words reconnect you with God’s presence:


Breathing in: O let me sense . . .
Breathing out: the world anew.


And if you have a moment to pray here is a short prayer:


Open my eyes,
O God,
to the marvels that surround me.
Show me the wonder
of each breath I take,
of my every
thought,
word
and movement.
— Rebbe Nachman of Breslov in The Gentle Weapon