“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;^[a] his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

(Lamentations 3:23)

While working in my little home workroom yesterday, I was listening to a favourite playlist of mine of various artists, including Matt Redman, who wrote a beautiful song, “May I never lose the wonder,” the bridge of which says:

“May I never lose the wonder Oh, the wonder of Your mercy. May I sing Your hallelujah Hallelujah, Amen.…”

(Matt Redman)

Old Faithful

While listening to the song, my memory dredged up something I once read, about a visit by author Philip Yancey and his wife to Yellowstone National Park.

The park is famous for, among other things, a naturally occurring phenomenon called a cone geyser, named “Old Faithful.”

It was given this name in 1870 because of its almost clockwork predictability to erupt, around every 90 minutes, with a spectacular eruption height of up to 185 feet.

I have never seen it for myself, having never even been to the USA, but it’s on my “bucket-list.”

To return to the story; the Yanceys had a meal in the restaurant that overlooks Old Faithful. The next eruption had been predicted in 24 minutes, and when the event was just a minute away, all the diners left their tables and went over to the viewing windows to watch. I can just imagine the sense of anticipation in that room, however I was more struck by what Philip Yancey noted, in this part of the story.

He saw that as soon as the diners had moved to the windows, the waiters moved in on the deserted tables and began clearing empty plates, wiping tables, refilling drinks glasses.

Fascinated, he continued to watch them while Old Faithful erupted in a spectacular explosion of sound and power. Not even one waiter so much as glanced towards the window.

Because they had become so used to it, they had ceased to be in awe of Old Faithful and no longer noticed the regular displays of wonder.

Too Busy to Be Awed?

It’s very easy at times, to treat the presence and blessing of God in our lives like that. Every single day of our lives God does wondrous things, some that we will never even know about, this side of Heaven.

His presence is continually with us, but we can become so overly familiar that we lose our sense of awe and wonder. We just don’t see Him anymore.

Like those waiters, we rush about all over the place with our heads down, just trying to get through the mundane chores of our lives – “if I could just get all these (metaphorical) plates cleared away”…

And in the busyness of our mundane, we forget to stop and be in awe of our incredible God:

He is awesome in power, splendour, majesty and glory. And He is tender and steadfast in His loving kindness towards us. He is faithful and just in all His ways towards us: In how He loves us. In how He takes care of us. In how He provides for us. In His goodness towards us.

(Mustard Seed Blog)

May I never, ever, lose the wonder.

Jill 💜