Week of August 5, 2009
Melanie H.

"The people were amazed at his teaching.
Mark 1:22

AMAZING! INCREDIBLE! When was the last time you used these words to express your feelings or responses? What created this sense of amazement within you? Or has life become so mechanized, so full of logical explanations and reasons that you have difficulty responding to it with wonder, awe, or amazement?

Unfortunately many people lose the childlike quality of being surprised, impressed, or amazed at life. There are people who are so threatened by the unexplainable in life that they snuff out the wonder of it for themselves and others. That's sad - especially when it happens in our relationship with Christ.

When you read the Gospels or hear accounts of what God is doing in the lives of His people today, do you respond as the people of Jesus' day did? "Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers" (Luke 2:47); "And when Jesus finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching" (Matthew 7:28). Have you ever felt amazed at the fact that Jesus Christ lives within you? Do you stand in awe of the power of God which is alive and active in you today? Are you open to being amazed and astonished by God? Think about it. It takes grace in our time to keep our minds open to wonder, to be ready for the tug from God, the push from the Spirit, and the revelation of deep things from the hearts of ordinary people. It takes grace, but it is a great gift. If you have a place in your life where your eyes can still gape, your knees quiver, and your mind boggle, you are open for wonder. And, open to wonder, you are ready for God's surprises, even the greatest of all: that it can be all right when everything is wrong.

Dear God, we pray to open our eyes
and fill them with wonder today. Amen.

Contributed by Melanie H.
Published Monday August 5, 2002
Week 36 of Liturgical Year A