Wonder
June 2, 2024 — Laura House
From infancy, children exhibit a sense of wonder at everything around them. Remember when your child first discovered their hands and feet? How about their first wave, first steps, first words?
Then as a youngster, everything seems exciting and the childish delight and wonder are a gift enjoyed by all of the adults in their lives. Toddler giggles are contagious.
I’m guessing that Nathan was about four years old in this picture. He was in awe of what he had found. I don’t remember where he found it and I’m sure we shouldn’t have disturbed the nest from it’s home, but I’m glad I stopped for a moment to snap this photo.
Throughout his entire life, he held on to that sense of wonder, love of learning, and excitement when discovering or accomplishing something new. In his college years, he sometimes would ask me to take a look at some incredible project he had just finished coding. I would gaze at his three-screened workstation and the computer code that was so foreign to me and I’d ask, “Do you want me to try to understand it or just be a cheerleader?” He’d chuckle and say that the cheerleader role was fine. I miss that role so much.
He was constantly learning, honing new skills, and sharing amazing and interesting facts with the rest of us.
Since Nathan has been gone from earth, I have discovered a different sense of wonder about life. I’m amazed that I’ve had the privilege of being a mom. I’m in awe when I read the Bible and see the story of the world and the plan God has for humanity. That God would look with compassion on the people He created, see their sin, then through Jesus’ death and resurrection make a way for us to be restored to relationship with Him, is more than my mind can comprehend. I’m overwhelmed by the depth of our Creator’s love for each of us (“... how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge...” — Ephesians 3:18-19).
Through the darkest nights on earth, and sometimes there seem to be so many of them, we can cling to the One who loves us unconditionally and will never leave us.
Everyday, I’m in wonder at the thought of leaving this temporary abode to spend eternity with Jesus, Nathan, my Mom, and with so many others who have gone on ahead. We don’t know when that day will be. It could be very soon, or it could still be a long way down the road. But until that time, let us encourage each another to “run the race” well; growing in our relationship with the Lord, touching those around us, and seeking to honor Him with our lives.
“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” — I Thessalonians 4:13-18
Maranatha.