This blog now contains more than 670 posts.  Here is a post from September 2012  that you may have missed.

A little girl and her grandmother were cuddled together in a rocking chair reading a book when a loud crash of thunder got their attention.  The little girl got up and ran to the window.  “Grandma,” she called, “Come here, quick!”

The grandmother got up slowly and walked to the window. Following her granddaughter’s pointing finger, she saw rainbow stripes against a patch of blue sky. Her granddaughter looked up at her and said, “Grandma, who made that?”

I envy that child. Like most children, her world is still full of awe and wonder.  Sometimes I walk through my world day after day without really seeing – until a clap of thunder wakes me up.

In moments when I am practicing the art of paying attention, I am filled with wonder when a baby smiles back at me.  When a choir and orchestra fill a sanctuary with glorious music. When sunlight slants through a forest. When birds serenade each other at sunrise. When a perfect sentence ends a mesmerizing book. When a dancer gracefully floats across the stage. When children giggle. When aromas of a Thanksgiving meal waft through a  warm kitchen. When frost traces a delicate filigree across my window pane.

Living in wonder trains our souls for worship. In fact, Abraham Joshua Heschel (the author of the story of the girl and her grandmother) says that without wonder there is no worship. Start walking through your world with your eyes and ears and heart wide open.  Look past routine and humdrum and gaze at the holiness of ordinary moments. Live intentionally in wonder and worship – and praise our God who fills our world with beauty and delightful surprises in unexpected places.