There are two types of blindness. The
first happens when my eyes cannot see light; the second happens when I
cannot see God. There are two types of deafness. The first happens
when my ears cannot detect the vibration of sound; the second happens
when my ears have lost their ability to hear God’s voice.
I see God’s love in the birth of a child. I hear God’s voice in the
sound of laughter and joy. I see the beauty of his palette painted in
the sunset. I see his infinite power in the billions of galaxies that
He created and hurled into space. I feel his care in the warmth of the
sun that shines on my face. I see the twinkle in his eyes in the stars
at night. I hear God speak in the silence of the wilderness. I hear
God sing in the songs that He gave to each bird. I feel God’s love in
the love that I have for my children. Every time a baby is born, I know
that God hasn’t given up on the human race.
Everywhere and at all times, God is at work in my world. God is always
present in my sense of wonder. If I lose my sense of wonder, I lose my
sight and hearing. I lose God, and I lose the meaning of my life. My
sense of wonder is fragile, and I must handle it with care.
For some people, life is a reductionist experience in which every
significant event is explained away. They reduce the miracles of
life to scientific explanations that suck the vitality out of the
experience. The miracles become a "nothing but".
A bird's song is nothing but a vibration of sound waves. A sunset
is nothing but the refraction of sunlight through the clouds as the sun
moves below the horizon. A rainbow is nothing but the splitting of
the invisible light spectrum by the prismatic effect of rain drops.
The color of a rose is nothing but the reflection of a wavelength of
light. A twinkling star is nothing but light being irregularly
refracted by different layers of the atmosphere. Man is nothing
but an accident of evolution in a blind and meaningless universe.
The more scientific explanations you put into your mind, the more your
sense of wonder withers. When everything has been fully explained,
you feel supremely intelligent, and your sense of wonder is gone.
When the job is complete, you have demythologized everything, and you
are left with practically nothing.
The only thing that remains is eyes that don't see, ears that don't
hear, and a heart that cannot experience the meaning of life.
Your sense of wonder is closely linked with your ability to see
and hear God at work in your world. When your sense of wonder
dies, you become blind and deaf to God's presence.
There are two types of blindness. The first happens when
your eyes cannot see light. The second happens when your eyes have
lost their sense of wonder. There are two types of deafness.
The first happens when your ears cannot detect the vibrations of sound.
The second happens when you ears have lost their sense of wonder.
One of the great tragedies of the twenty-first century is eyes that
don't see and ears that don't hear. Although your eyes may be full
of exiting images, you cannot see God working in your life. Your
ears are full of wonderful sounds, but you cannot hear God speak.
God is at work everywhere, at all times, and in all things.
Unfortunately, when you lose your sense of wonder, you lose your ability
to see God's presence and power in the ordinary events of life.
City dwellers living in concrete jungles find their sense of wonder is
continually at risk. No stars twinkle in their sky at night.
Light pollution extinguishes every star from the sky. Pigeons
replace the hundreds of species of bird life found in the
countryside. Dogs, cats, and rats are the only animals wandering
in the streets. Pets locked in cages and animals in zoos replace
the thousands of species found in the wild. Wet smog replaces the
earthy smell of fresh rain. Snow even has a brownish
discoloration.
People have difficulty appreciating God's presence when they can't see
stars twinkling in their skies. Smog is a powerful filter that
hides God from their eyes. It's hard to feel God's presence in a
concrete jungle that has brown snow and animals locked in cages.
It's not surprising that city dwellers often lose their sense of wonder,
because they live in a world in which man has extinguished the natural
beauty and replaced it with inferior substitutes. The wonders of
God's natural world have been replaced with man-made sights and sounds
that don't satisfy their instinctive longings.
