“Wonder
requires us to acknowledge what we do not know or may never know, to
acknowledge the limits of knowledge. It is then a different species of
knowledge, a way of knowing that does not lead to certainties or truths about
the world or the way things are or ought to be. It is a state of mind that, like
being in love, colors all we know.”
Wonder lets us acknowledge wonders and
miracles. Wonder is born of faith and leads to deeper faith, deeper love. It
allows uncertainties, hurts and failures. Wonder brings us to the interior secret of knowing ourselves fragile and at the same time treasured by God
in Christ.
Like
love, wonder allows all things, believes all things. It let’s be, let’s God be
God, magnificent, extravagant but also hidden and quiet and unremarkable.
Wonder says, ‘Yes.’ It does not demand certitude but relaxes into a way of
knowing that is beyond neat categories and complex argument. Beginning in
wonder means I welcome Christ drawing me, working in my life, in our lives
together in ways we do not ask for. Wonder says, “Yes,” or even, “Why not.”
As Anne Sexton says, “Too much is
happening for even big hearts to hold.” And with work to do and contradictions
at every turn, perhaps the Lord is inviting us simply to wonder and most of
all to trust Him, minute by minute, day by day, over and over.
Photograph by Brother Brian. Quotations from Peter de Bolla, Art Matters.
