“He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the LORD is gracious and full of compassion.” (Psalms 111:4 KJV)
Wonderful works? Now there is something really interesting! How quickly we rush on to teach about the need to remember. Yet, what is it that we are remembering? Wonderful works? Think a moment on the term “wonderful”. Do you think of words like awesome, marvelous, or admirable? Focus on the root of it’s meaning in “full of wonder”. What kinds of characteristics does wonder have? Wonder is the very first layer of something. It has freshness and newness. Wonder is excited and aroused by it’s novelty. We stop to wonder at something as Moses did at the burning bush because of its uniqueness (see Exodus 3). Wonder does not necessarily overload our senses like astonishment or amazement although those emotions may follow. Wonder begins by noticing and a curiosity, yet it is the parent of pleasure. Wonder precedes love and admiration. It is after we investigate, experience, or simply stop to consider that we are given the ability to love, respect, admire, or treasure. Wonders accompany signs (see Deuteronomy 28:46 and Isaiah 20:3). It is often the prelude to the sign so that the sign might be noticed and as wonder continues to grow it causes us to consider. Wonder causes us to recognize the seed for the great tree it will become and gives us what is needed to plant the seed that the seed may become the tree.
So why is a sense of wonder and a knowledge that God’s works are indeed wonderful so important? Like a farmer who must remember the last good harvest to feed his inspiration to plant another crop, so when we have a genuine wonder about what God is doing it feeds our willingness to let Him continue the work He has begun. If God’s works had no wonder, then they would be like the works of a man or even a super man. Yet, God transcends man. His works accomplish all that man needs and all that God desires. God gives His works wonder and they are there for us to see and consider. Which brings us to the really difficult part. God’s works are indeed there for us to see and consider. They are not necessarily there for us to manage. When we see His works for the wonder that they are; then we do so in surrender to Him. We remember the wonder of His works that we might remember what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will somehow and someway yet accomplish. Do not make the mistake, which can cause a person’s undoing, of mistaking God’s wonderfulness for merely an awesome, marvelous, or admirable machine that needs to be controlled and managed. It is a polluted and perverted thought for man to attempt to contain the wonders of God, yet God provides them in various times and places for us to consider. Wonder is like the cover over a spring that once removed bursts forth. Wonder fills a person. If wonder is planted and feed on a steady diet of God’s word and a daily trust in Him it will produce much fruit. If this diet is absent, wonder becomes aimless wandering. Wonder is often our first tool in the witness of what God has shown us to tell those God has placed around us. Do you have a wonder when considering the ways of God? When you consider anything, look at it with the same wonder that is present even in a child.
“But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14 KJV)