“It is not easy to convey a sense of wonder, let alone resurrection wonder, to another. It’s the very nature of wonder to catch us off guard, to circumvent expectations and assumptions. Wonder can’t be packaged, and it can’t be worked up. It requires some sense of being there and some sense of engagement.”
Eugene H. Peterson
It is the nature of a Wonderful God to give revelation to His wider wonder world – to continually display the beauty of His creation, including the creation of relationship with Him. In John Piper’s excellent book “Desiring God“, he writes a section under the heading:
“God’s ultimate goal… is to preserve and display his infinite and awesome greatness and worth, that is, his glory.
God has many other goals in what he does. But none of them is more ultimate than this. They are all subordinate. God’s overwhelming passion is to exalt the value of his glory. To that end he seeks to display it, to oppose those who belittle it, and to vindicate it from all contempt. It is clearly the uppermost reality in his affections. He loves his glory infinitely.”
Far from being the expression of an infantile god made in the image of man, the Living God gives revelation to wonder as the natural expression of His beauty, since all beauty reveals the creator who imagines it. Thus Piper explains:
“He loves himself infinitely… a moment’s reflection reveals the inexorable justice of this fact. God would be unrighteous (just as we would) if he valued anything more than what is supremely valuable. But he himself is supremely valuable. If he did not take infinite delight in the worth of his own glory he would be unrighteous.”
Oh the Wonder of His glory and revelation:
May it catch us off guard,
May we find ourselves being present,
May we be fully engaged in His beauty.
