Dr. David G. Benner is a psychologist and author who has spent thirty-five years integrating psychology and spirituality. Among his numerous books is Soulful Spirituality: Becoming Fully Alive and Deeply Human, from which the following observations are culled (pp. 108-110):
Seeing through eyes of wonder, children notice things that adults can no longer perceive. But sadly, the shelflife of wonder in most children is quite short. William Wordsworth makes this point eloquently in his poem "Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood."
There was a time when meadow, grove and stream
The earth and every common sight
To me did seem
Appareled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore.
Turn whereso'ere I may,
By night or day,
The light which I have seen
I now can see no more.
The diminishment of our natural capacity to see the truly wondrous and to dance in enthrallment with the world begins when wonder is replaced by rationality. This happens to all but those who are fortunate enough to be encouraged to maintain imagination, curiosity, and creativity. In them, the roots of wonder may grow deep enough that it will persist through life. Many of those people become artists and poets. It is from them that we can learn the most about wonder if we have lost this natural childhood gift and wish to recover it...
A world devoid of mystery turns out to be a world that is too small for the human spirit. This is why Albert Einstein [hardly the poet] said, "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious...Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are diminished."
In his poem "God's Grandeur," Gerard Manley Hopkins described the world as "charged with the grandeur of God." Elizabeth Barrett Browning presented a very similar picture.
Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
How might you renew your wonder of God?
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