I can’t help but wonder how something comes from nothing:
time proceeds from eternity,
movement is birthed from stillness,
light shines out of darkness
purpose from chaos,
language emerges from silence,
the Word speaks creation into being
and life begins.
And I wonder at the God who precedes all these things:
existing eternally in community –
a trinity of loving fraternity –
always living, ever giving,
present, seeing, knowing,
majestic in splendour,
awesome in power,
radiant in glory,
perfect in wisdom and might.
I wonder if He wondered with joy and delight
as each new being he created came bursting into life,
each star ablaze and flung into space,
every flower unfolding with vibrant colour and beauty,
every animal formed, shaped and named,
each human face with tender love beheld,
Spirit-breathed life fashioned out of clay,
invited to walk together in the cool of each day.
I can’t help but wonder at the arrogance and indifference
that could lead us to turn away
from the One who adored and created –
as if our own thoughts could be higher than the
perfect wisdom of the One
who imagined us before thought was a thing –
to choose paths of hate and war over love and peace,
trampling and treading on one another in a race to the top,
to withdraw and retreat into shame and despair
when we fall by the wayside or the illusions stop.
And I wonder why God doesn’t intervene:
forcefully taking over the mess we make of this world,
superseding our selfishness, determining our fate,
compelling our obedience, dispelling our liberty –
if that’s what it takes to restore order in this chaos
and see heartlessness end.
I wonder if He wonders why we do not surrender,
respond to his grace, seek His face,
choose life over death, heaven over hell,
return and repent, be restored and released,
willingly follow the paths he has shown and made known,
embrace the true freedom his service offers,
constructing the community reflective of his character
rather than our own.
I can’t help but wonder how history unfolds
as each generation drifts further in the cold
dark despair of humanity’s inhumanity,
warring and lying,
cheating and dying,
the futility of our so-called civility
and the profanity of our self-glorifying vanity
playing on repeat.
And I wonder at God’s promises
retold and renewed again and again and again,
a continued plan for redemption revealed century after century
in glimpses and foretastes,
rhymes and proclamations,
through poets and preachers,
prophets and seers,
with previews and signs of a wonder yet to come –
the greatest miracle still to be done.
I wonder if He wondered with compassionate exasperation –
as his prophets were ignored and reviled,
his clear message muddled and defiled –
when we would truly listen, hear and respond
or if each season of turning would last very long
and if even his greatest revelation and utmost salvation
would ultimately be forsaken.
I can’t help but wonder with the shepherds at that moment
when the world turns upside down,
on a peaceful normal night,
heaven torn asunder,
space and time ripped at the seams,
as the Lord of all creation steps down and enters in;
and with Magi from the east,
searching for signs from above
to understand this extraordinary event and what it might mean
for me and for us and for all of history.
And I wonder at God’s timing and I marvel at His grace,
his patient persistence, His undeterred pace,
all promises perfected,
all expectations exceeded,
all faith filled fuller,
all hopes hugely seeded,
a new way of being unveiled for both God and His people.
I wonder if He wondered as the angels sang His song,
how His people would receive him
and just what he was taking on,
clothing himself with humanity
in the person of His Son,
entering into impermanence
taking on skin and flesh,
giving up the magnificent throne of heaven
for a lowly feeding trough.
I can’t help but wonder at a baby’s vulnerability:
utter dependence, helplessness, defencelessness,
enslavement to hunger, susceptible to disease,
exposed to the elements, open to abuse,
birthed into mess and brokenness,
disorder and decay,
need upon need upon need.
And I wonder about God’s experience:
the Everlasting Father now cradled in a new mother’s arms,
once clothed in majesty and splendour now wrapped in human rags,
all heaven confounded, the angels perplexed,
as the one whose word spoke eternity into being’s
cries wordlessly pierce the night,
in to all appearances an ordinary family just like the rest,
easily overlooked and neglected,
yet too soon to be pursued and rejected
when seen as a threat.
I wonder if he wondered with those newborn eyes wide,
how all that he now needed He could not himself provide,
how suddenly did He know frailty,
how immediately did He know distress,
the all-powerful rendered powerless,
the all-knowing limited to babbling,
the infinite reduced to the finite,
the immortal subjected to mortality.
I can’t help but wonder at the paradoxes and the mysteries
of this faith and its creeds,
the beauty and complexity of what I believe,
divinity and humanity,
the supernatural within nature,
miracles and reasoning,
transcendence and presence,
truth in confusion, joy in lament,
hope in hopeless seasons, love in loneliness.
And I wonder who this God truly is
and how to know Him more,
a king who forsakes palaces and dwells among the poor,
who walks among us vulnerable and joins us weak and weary,
who extends his hand to the diseased and dishevelled,
and his heart to the least and lost,
who gives up eternity to walk in the dust,
and embraces humiliation and carries a cross.
I wonder if he wonders as He shares our human life,
how we carry all these burdens
and tread these disheartening paths,
not overwhelmed by our sorrows or enslaved to our sin,
knowing our weakness, tenderly walking beside,
with fullest understanding in compassion reaching out,
the One who has entered our experience,
now inviting us to follow Him into His.
I can’t help but wonder and in awe I worship
for I can never comprehend,
I sing and praise and bend my knee,
forever I stand amazed,
I come and adore Him, I kneel at His feet
in astonishment and adulation,
in reverence and veneration,
with prayers and songs and silence I ponder,
seeking not to understand but simply to wonder.
And I wonder because God has come and revealed himself completely:
the invisible made visible,
the indivisible Three now One in flesh,
Wonderful Counselor unveiled, Mighty God incarnate,
Everlasting Father with us, Prince of Peace inside the chaos,
God, King, and Saviour now one of our race,
His name called Emmanuel.
I wonder if he wonders as His people join together
to celebrate His coming each December,
singing songs, sharing stories to remember again,
his entrance into our world once and for all,
how we can receive His wonderous coming with wonder yet again,
every day, every moment, to have, to share and to make known,
and like little children on Christmas morning,
to be enthralled and transfixed, thrilled and elated,
in His abiding presence with us always and forever,
with wonder,
in wonder.
I can’t help but wonder.
Thinking Out Loud ... 