AWED

I had the opportunity to watch a young mother taking her daughter (I am guessing around two years old) for a walk. What joy it gave me to watch this young child struck with awe almost with every step she took. She stopped by a small tree to examine the steel supports that were helping that tree to grow straight and tall. She touched the tree, the supports, the dirt, walked around it looking up and down with fascination. Her mother was 20 feet ahead as this young girl kept stopping to look at this and bend over and pick up that and view that other object of fascination on the other side of the sidewalk. This child's mother, even at her young age, seemed to have already lost the ability to be awed by everyday things. Intently starting at her cellphone she missed the moments of true joy of the awe of her daughter exploring her universe. What a blessing to watch that dear innocent child awed by the most familiar of things.

As we deepen in our love for God, our dear Father also gives us a growing tenderness of heart, and a deeper gratitude for the smallest of things, and also the ability to be awed again by the familiar. This includes nature, the stamps of God in the good and love of people and actions around us, our redemption in Christ and also the truths of the Word of God. I pray that this year may bring to you a greater welling up from your heart of tears of joy for the good, the beautiful, the innocent, that which has God's stamp on it in the most familiar things of life. May our Father give us a renewed ability to be awed with Him and all that is His and reflects Him in this world and all that calls our attention to the depth of His Love and the great Hope He has put in our hearts and promised to us.

God's Redemption in Christ humanizes us. Being conformed to the image of Christ means loving more deeply, living more righteously in a wholehearted way not in a legalistic way, and being awed with creation, our Father and all that has the touch of His hand upon it, like the awed innocence of a discovering child. There are unbelievers today who have this awe view of life but only the redeemed have the greatest awe of all, salvation in Jesus Christ. Believers who have lost the essence of awe in life find daily life more difficult and strenuous and empty. Awe renews our delight in life and God. Awe generates gratitude - always a welcome utterance. Lord deliver me from the blindness of familiarity that I may once again be amazed as one of your dear children. And thank you that you will not be on your cellphone but rejoicing over the awe of your child in Christ.

PS: I thank God that my grandchildren who have been limited from TV and video games and developed their imaginations continue to be awed by what surrounds them and that I am allowed to enjoy their awed discoveries with them. Lord, deepen their awe for you as they grow up.