The Wonder-full Life
I’m not even two days into my break
from school for the summertime and my relief from all duties related to
classroom teaching for quite-the-while, and what to I find myself doing? That’s
right. I’m teaching. Only this time, I’m teaching myself new things.
As a modification to the old saying
goes, “You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can’t take the
lessons out of the teacher.” Ok, so that isn’t a modification to an old saying.
I pretty much made it up on the spot. It’s only thirty seconds old. You’re
welcome. Old or new sayings aside, it’s true that the lessons a teacher-at-heart
gives and shares oftentimes extend far beyond the classroom walls and go on to
embracing, altering, and inspiring another soul for the long haul.
Just two days ago, I became
decidedly anxious to learn about all-things-domestic that I don’t yet know
about (which I’m learning is pretty much everything). Cooking. Cleaning.
Sewing. Building and crafting things for the house. And the list could go on
and on. Immediately upon the dawn of my curiosity and anxiousness to learn
all-things-domestic, do you know what I discovered?
I discovered this:
Life, like this, is wonderful. And it’s wonder-full. There are so many things I don’t know, but will soon learn.
There is much to be mastered and much to be learned from things I can’t and
won’t ever master. Life is a give and take of trial and error. There’s so many
things to know and learn and see and do. I can’t possibly take it all in at
once, else it overwhelms me for the negative instead of inspires me for the
positive.
But life isn’t only this
wonder-full in the domestic realm. I would argue that it’s like that in every
realm of life. (At least in every aspect we give a chance to prove full of
wonder, we shall soon see that life indeed is wonderful.)
Don’t believe me? Let’s try this
aspect of life on for size: Relationships. Every person you know is full of
wonder, curiosities, inspirations, ideas, dreams, successes, failures, stories
of each, and lessons to be learned of both and all. Every person who chooses to
enter a relationship with you, be it family members, co-workers, dear friends,
acquaintances, or what have you, creates with you another mystery (the mystery
of relating and relationship-forming). And guess what? It’s also uniquely full
of wonder.
To bring it further home, Jeff and
I are at a beautiful point in our relationship. We are just so very much in love. In two weeks, we
will be married and will forever live upon this Earth as God intended us to be,
as man and wife. There’s so much we’ve yet to learn and experience. Successes
and failures will soon come knocking on our door, begging for our time, energy,
heart’s affections, and the very essence of who we are going to be as a couple.
My life as Mrs. Hazard, with my sweet, good man Mr. Jeff Hazard right by my
side, will be filled of so much wonder. I pray I never lose the wonder of this
beautiful blessing of relationship.
(Throughout my few days spent at
home this week, my mind has been reeling with so many different aspects of life
that are filled with wonder and are truly wonderful, but I’ll spare you of all
of my inner thoughts. For now.)
Another, more eternal aspect of
life that is indeed wonder-full is God’s grace. Talk about something I’ll never
know the full depths of or understand the details and motives behind, and we’ll
quickly get to the areas of God’s love and His grace. Worship band Passion
recently produced an album entitled, “Take It All.” On it is a song by Matt
Redman called “Mercy.” One of my favorite lyrics appears in the chorus, and it
goes like this:
“May I never lose the wonder,
oh, the wonder
of Your mercy.
May I sing your Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, Amen.”
If you’d like to explore the song in full detail, here it is
for you.
In all my ramblings today, the
bottom line is this: Life is full of wonder, and when I really sit back and
ponder God’s grace, I realize that all in this life is undeserved.
He doesn’t have to do for me what He does. Beyond exempting me from eternal
punishment in Hell through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, on the cross, He
increasingly blesses me ever-so-much and ever-so-daily with things like
relationships and love and housework and various opportunities for growth. The
very things I sometimes complain about, get caught up in, and discard as
commonplace or unwanted. Those are
His gifts to me. Those are evidences of His mercy in my life. Why I complain
about His gifts of little-daily-disguised-mercies, I’ll never know. But I do
know this: this life that’s so full of wonder is wonderful indeed.
Today, make a list of the wonderful things
in your life.
And decidedly determine to never
lose the wonder it all.
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