Sundays are my wondering days. You know, I wonder …? Or, I wonder how I can make … happen? Even, I wonder how this current war can end? As spring happens, it’s also a day for longer walks, admiring spring flowers, azaleas, dogwoods and cherry trees. When I was younger, spring offered a much needed break from my sacrifice, usually oatmeal cookies or chocolate. Now, not so much.
Anyway as I saunter on this early spring day I wonder, How do I bridge the gap between “wondering” about a better life and the active “making” of it? Is the resolution of human war found in political strategy, or in a fundamental shift in the human heart that we have yet to master?
Sunday’s are also a day to wonder about God, his nature, her heart, and what they think about all this nonsense that is going on.
Astronomers consider the Universe as chaos, I wonder if that offends God. I’d bet God thinks the universe itself is in good working order, now what humans have done to this planet is another matter. What we call “chaos” might simply be a “complexity” we aren’t yet high enough to understand.
During Lent we honor those three years his son wandered our planet trying to give us guidance as to how we should live. That didn’t turn out too well. Sometimes I wonder whether he has given up on us, but thank goodness I have faith he hasn’t. Does God view the ecological and moral state of the Earth as a failed experiment, or as a growing pain in a much longer story of redemption?
Faith is the bridge over the gap of “giving up.” The fact that spring returns every year—with the dogwoods and azaleas—is a physical manifestation of the idea that God has not given up. If the Creator still finds it worthwhile to paint the cherry blossoms every March, there is a strong case to be made that He (or She) is still very much invested in the “working order” of the world and the hearts within it.
Sunday wondering is the “fuel” for Monday “doing.” Wondering is the first step of creation. By spending Sundays admiring the flowers and asking the hard questions about God and war, we are cultivating the empathy and clarity needed to “make it happen” during the rest of the week. Perhaps the “good working order” of the universe includes our very act of wondering. The Universe isn’t just stars and vacuum; it is also a person on a long walk, remembering the taste of an oatmeal raisin cookie and hoping for peace.
Leave a Reply +