Wonders and "Wondering About"

When I first thought about the wonder of life, my mind jumped to thoughts of nature, and wonders I have observed.

During summers, on the shore of an Adirondack lake, I have watched baby ducklings find nourishment. The young ducks bent grass stems with their beaks to reach the topmost seeds. Then, as easily as we push peas from a pod, the ducklings slid the grass seeds into their bills.

As I watched, I thought of God, who is the Provider for ducklings and for every life. How wondrous it is that God shows no favoritism among His created. He or She provides for all created life: for us human folk, for wild creatures, for trees and plants, and undoubtedly, for planets and the universe.

As I think of God’s creations, our daughter comes to my mind. Jean has a great interest in the night sky. From our camp dock that is away from the pollution of city lights, we see a sky that is filled and wondrously so, with light. Jean surveys such a sky and exclaims with wonder, “Look! There’s the Milky Way, our home galaxy!”

As I contemplate the Milky Way, and Jean’s information that it is “our galaxy” my mind wonders, “ If we are looking up at a faraway place, and yet, at our home galaxy, then somehow, we are part of that phenomenon. How amazing!"

My late mother, Madeleine Manson, once spoke of the wonder that God has created inside of us. She said, “We seem to have an ‘inner fire’. When we bring our hands together, they are usually warm to our touch. How comforting that warmth is,” Mother said. “How comforting, too,” she said, “is all warmth to us: a warm bath or shower, or when it starts, the rising heat from a furnace.”

Mother said, "If our hands aren’t warm, we know we can make them warmer by briskly rubbing our hands together." Mother's revelation of our inner “fire” became a “wonder” to her. To note the event, she used her favorite remark “Will wonders never cease!”

I just learned last year that, in the book of Amos, among writing that seems filled with dreaded pronouncements, is a "good-news Scripture", too. Amos, (4:13), tells us that God “reveals His thoughts to man.” I believe, that ideas, just as our breath, come to us from God’s Spirit within us, and to guide us. A wondrous gift of love from our Creator.

A hymn l sing, almost daily is my prayer, as well. “Lead me Lord. Lead me in your righteousness. Make Thy way plain before my face. For it is Thou, Lord, Thou Lord only, that maketh me dwell in safety.”
Words: Psalm 5:8 ; 4:8 Music Samuel Sebastan Wesley, Hymn 473, United Methodist Hymnal.