Capturing Awe – August 24, 2003
Most of us have had the experience of being suddenly awestruck by something we usually take for granted. In one startling moment a sunset takes our breath away. In that moment we see with new eyes, and for a time afterward we see differently. Green is greener, stars dance brighter, and sounds ring clearer. But then we slip back into old ways. Green is just green, the stars no longer hold our gaze, and we grow too busy to hear the music around us.
How much richer our lives could be if instead of forgetting those moments of awe, we clung to them in such a way that they defined all other moments in our lives. Perhaps that is what God intended when He gave us such experiences.
Much of life seems mundane. All of us must wait in lines, wash dishes, make beds, and mow lawns. For some these moments are inconsequential or even tedious. However, for others these routine moments are infused with awe. These people have learned to let wonder reside inside them instead of merely letting it pass through them. They relive moments of wonder while waiting in lines. They hear a mountain brook when running water for dishes. They feel a spring breeze against their face when lifting the sheets to make a bed, and they relive the touch of dewy meadow grass against their ankles while mowing the lawn.
William Blake once urged us, “to see a world in a grain of sand / And a Heaven in a wild flower.”[1] Such experiences are available to all—rich or poor, young or old, strong or weak. We don’t need to wait until nature takes us by surprise. Once we have experienced the wonder of a seemingly everyday moment—dust wisping through sunbeams or the curiosity of a child waiting in line with his mother—that wonder is ours to keep, if we want it. No matter what our hands are doing, our hearts can reach beyond the moment and capture the awe and beauty in life.
Program #3862
[1] “Auguries of Innocence,” Louis Untermeyer, comp., A Treasury of Great Poems (1955), 608.