I Ask For Wonder

I seem to be in an in-between place with my posts. I have finished, for now, writing about the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world. I have not yet started writing about the nature of mankind (“what is man that you are mindful of him” — Psalm 8) and the Goodness of God. Instead, God seems to have me praying about, thinking about, and writing about Him and His amazing creation. I wrote a page in this blog about science and faith. Now I am writing, but haven’t uploaded yet, a post on perceiving God with our mind — seeing God in the order, organization, and beauty of the world around us. Really, in the Cosmos from the extremely small (the human cell, for example) to the incredibly large (an entire galaxy).

As I thought about how my mind can see the work of God I reflected on the 1. the dilemma in quantum theory I have already posted — a ‘thing’ cannot exist without an observer. Who (because an observer is a person!) brought the Universe into existence? 2. The origin of order and organization. 3. The other enigma in quantum theory — entanglement. And finally, 4. a well-known but relatively obscure principle in physics — optimization. This principle states that all systems will always order themselves so that they operate (do whatever the system does) with maximum efficiency — every part of the system will be connected to every other part so that the system does the most work in the least amount of time, within the allowable constraints, as my engineering friends would say.

I see God at work in each of these principles. I don’t rely on them to prove the existence of God. He is very real and present to me in the world. But these ‘scientific’ ideas speak to me of the ubiquitousness of God — of His transcendence, immanence, omnipotence, and omniscience in the Cosmos. Because, while these principles can be read about in scientific papers and textbooks, and are very much part of ‘science’, they speak to me of a force or presence outside of natural systems, but which is operating within these systems. There is ‘someone’ who is observing, connecting, ordering, and arranging that my mind can perceive, if I have ‘eyes to see’ and ‘ears to hear’.

To me, that ‘One’ is God. Of course, that statement is very much non-scientific. A scientist, if he or she is a believer, might agree as a believer, but cannot claim that statement is truth as a scientist. Scientists who do not believe in God will reject my thoughts here out of hand with little or no further consideration. No matter. For me, these 4 principles point to God intimately, moment-by-moment at work in the world around us. They give us a glimpse into the movement, the working of an Immanent God (immanence refers to God’s presence in Creation, while at the same time, remaining distinct from it. Immanence is not pantheism or deism).

I was walking up a steep road in my neighborhood yesterday morning (I am trying to get some exercise each day) thinking about God and His vastness and yet intimate presence. The sky was blue, spring is about over here but there were still blooming trees and bushes all around, and bird-song was surrounding me. Other than the birds, it was quiet, except for the barking dog down the street. It was a serene, peaceful, and beautiful moment, like we have all experienced from time to time.

On that walk, the immediate beauty of woods, flowers, and sky got overlain on these intellectual ideas of God’s immanence and I got a glimpse of God’s glory — just a tiny glimpse. God’s glory — the outstreaming manifestation of God’s beauty, presence, and power. I stopped and asked God — “can I have more, can I see more? I wanted to get beyond, to get past, to break through into a ‘place’ where His majesty, vastness, greatness (there are no words for this) would flood into my mind and heart. I wanted to worship “with reverence and awe” as the author of Hebrews says. I wanted awe, I wanted wonder, I wanted to break out of my limited, selfish place in time and space, and be filled with the wonder and awe of God. I wanted something that would transcend my limitations as the creature and bring me into the realm of Him, the Creator. Not for me — but so that I could worship “God acceptably with reverence and awe”.

And then I felt God say “be satisfied with this moment of My glory”. I understood that the only reason God does not show His children all of His glory is that we are not ready — it would be too much for us. Either it would literally kill us or we would be so forever altered that we could no longer function in the world. If we glimpsed the full-on magnificence of God for just a second our understanding of every thing would be so completely changed, so other-worldly, that we could not longer relate to the people around us. We would become like a person with some strange personality disorder. We would see so far beyond and above what everyone else saw that the world around us would no longer make sense or seem real. We couldn’t handle it. That is not our Father’s meaning of ‘abundant life’.

So, God I will settle for more wonder, more awe so that I can worship you acceptably. Not more knowledge, or at least not a lot. Give me wonder, wonder like a child seeing things in the world for the first time. Wonder, passion, enthusiasm for the simple things. Wonder like my 4-year old granddaughter who gets excited about a butterfly or a bee collecting pollen in a flowering bush. Wonder and awe — the antidote to pessimism, cynicism, complacency, apathy, and monotony of life. Because wonder is power.

That, I felt God say, I can do. Hallelujah!

Blessings to all of you. May you have more wonder today!