Everything we could ever need for life and complete devotion to God has already been deposited in us by his divine power. 2 Peter 1: 3 TPT
Last night I sat in absolute awe and wonder as my 10-year-old daughter performed for the very first time in front of an audience. She is an aerial acrobat! Gracefully she spins, twirls and flips through the sky. This in and of itself is an amazing feat, but if you knew what she overcame to get here you’d be even more inspired.
As a Momma we want our kids to discover who they are meant to be and grow in the confidence to share their gifts with the world. And in this moment, my jaw dropped, and a joy weld up from a place deep within me as my eyes captured her raw, natural talent on display. My daughter, who struggles with sensory processing disorder, selective mutism and anxiety, finally found her true voice!
This is the girl who shies away from even the slightest attention and even struggles to muster a few words to her closest relatives at a family gathering. But no one would have guessed last night that this is her inner battle. There were no glimpses of paralyzing anxiety. She was poised, confident and unbelievably elegant. Stunning even!
What if all it took for every one of us was to awaken to what has been within us all along?
I think many of us have lost our wonder. The concept of “Wonder” has so many beautiful meanings. I’ll just point out a few: to ponder, meditate on, be curious, and to marvel. It is “a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration caused by something beautiful and unexpected.”
Who am I, who are you when mingled and intertwined with God’s divine nature? Wonder sets us free to discover and to be curious about the unexpected beauty that can arises within us in the moments we catch glimpses of our true nature. Wonder frees our eyes to see and explore the unexpected beauty God placed within us just waiting to be released into the world. Wonder causes us to open our hearts to the possibility of things completely beyond our understanding and our ability to comprehend.
2 Peter 1:3 is one of those verse for me that contains so much wonder! How could I be in possession of God’s divine nature? That he would care enough to deposit within me, in advance everything I need to live this life of love and devotion in extravagant ways. Peter goes onto say that God’s divine virtues have been “planted deep within” us and we “possess them in abundant supply”. This means we have an abundant supply of “faith, goodness, understanding, self-control, patient endurance, godliness, mercy, and unending love” deposited within us (1:5-8).
But right after Peter encourages his fellow believers with this unimaginable truth, he points to what happens when the wonder within us is lost. He says in verse 9, “But if anyone lacks these things, he is blind, constantly closing his eyes to the mysteries of our faith…”. This verse makes me say, “WHAT, could it really be all because we stopped pondering, stopped being curious, stopped being in awe of the intermingling of God’s divine nature and who we are?”
The problem my friends is not that you don’t have what it takes to do things so beyond your ability and understanding. No, the problem is that somewhere along the way you lost your wonder. You stopped seeing and believing in what he has deposited in you all along. Something happened that robbed you of your curiosity and you stopped believing in the wonder within you! We’ve all experienced things that make us doubt our true nature. Hurt that makes us doubt that something beautiful could come from us. We have to get back to believing in the wonder of who God is in us and what that makes possible!!!
Sitting there watching my daughter perform before a hundred people made me marvel at the sheer beauty that emerge from her shell. The shell she once found so comforting, couldn’t exist in this space when she allow the beauty that had been there all along to be displayed. I didn’t even recognize her at first. But God did! He knew it was within her. I believe in that moment heaven was smiling as she connected with the wonder within her and what once seemed impossible became possible.
There is a wonder within us, each and every one of us, just waiting for our eyes to meet with our creator as he lovingly shows us who we were meant to be all along!
Be Bold ~ Release the WONDER within!