If you have had the privilege of hanging out with a young child, you soon experience how they see the world through the lens of wonder.

“Come see this!”

“Can you believe it?”

From ants on a giant anthill to a purple leaf slowly falling to the ground.

From the taste of honeysuckle to finding the light of the night’s first star.

Everything stirs wonder.

When was the last time you felt wonder?

What is wonder?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines wonder as “a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.”

If you are like me, the moments of wonder became fewer as the years passed.

Perhaps that is because there were fewer moments of surprise.

Or, perhaps, we became jaded and no longer found it easy to admire what had become familiar.

It could be that we have become disappointed and no longer acknowledge and embrace the unexpected, the unfamiliar, the inexplicable.

And that is sad.

We need more wonder.

Jesus told His followers, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18: 3-4)

Jesus compares the innocence of children, and the trust they have in their own earthly fathers, to the trust we are called to have in our Heavenly Father.,

Such trust is foundational to wonder.

It may just be that the best way for adults to experience wonder is first to spend time with God. Ask Him to:

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

(Psalm 51:10-12)

With a clean heart, a renewed and right spirit, with Joy of our salvation and with a willing spirit, we are positioned well for wonder.

Draw close to God—trust in Him—and be filled with wonder.