by Christine Sine

It’s Holy Week. Jesus is getting ready – not for the cross but for resurrection. “For the joy that was set before him” he willing planted the seed of his body so that walls could be broken down and new life could emerge. These words from my post yesterday continue to resound in my mind. How am I getting ready for the resurrection? How am I getting ready for the season of new life and joy that is in front of me, of all of us? Where do I already see glimpses of that new world, with Jesus the gardener right there sowing and planting and cultivating?

I think we so easily get stuck at the cross. It is as though our hopes and dreams never find life and birth because we, like the disciples don’t really believe that resurrection and new life is possible

Join the Awe and Wonder Challenge

This year for the season of Easter which extends from Easter Sunday to Pentecost, here on Godspace, we have chosen the theme “Season of Awe and Wonder” and I want to invite you to join us. Our daily experience of life, God and God’s world are meant to inspire us with awe and wonder. Our failure to notice the miracles around us is a failure of the spirit as well as the sense.

So let’s see if we can awaken our spirits as well as our senses this year.

Let’s take notice of the awe and wonder sightings around us.

See if you can notice six awe inspiring things each day.

Keep an awe and wonder journal over the next six weeks.

Write about them in your journal. Make a collage or sketch. Take a photo and paste it in your journal… send your inspiring ideas to us so that others too can enjoy the delight of what you are experiencing and hopefully enter into more of the joy of our awesome God too.

Get Your Dose of Awe and Wonder

Where are you awed by the presence of Jesus in your life and neighborhood? Where do you feel the awe inspiring thrill of what Jesus is giving birth too?

Not surprisingly this theme is motivated in part by my book The Gift of Wonder. In Chapter 2 where I talk about awe and wonder, the exercise at the end of the chapter has the following suggestions:

• Go for a walk and savor the experience with all your senses – listening, looking, tasting, touching and smelling what you encounter.
• Look through the lens of your camera or phone. What new perspectives does this bring to the scene?
• Pick up an unusually shaped rock or leaf or shell. What caught your attention? Hold it in your hand. How does it feel? What does it remind you of?
• Now find a quiet place to reflect. Use your crayons and permanent markers to create a pattern on your found item. What does this small piece of creation teach you about God?
• What else triggered a sense of awe in you today? Was it an unexpected smile, children playing or an inspiring story?

It’s not too late for our special discount on The Gift of Wonder bundle. Order today. This is only available through Godspace. 

Awe Begets Awe

The more we notice the awe inspiring nature of God’s world around us, the more awe inspiring and wonderful it seems. Suddenly the resurrected Jesus appears in our midst and we feel more alive than we ever have before.

And it’s not just nature that comes alive with awe and wonder either. Suddenly we are awed by the presence of Jesus in the people we meet or pass in the street. Stories of refugees inspire us with their resilience and hope in the face of disaster. Look at this amazing photo – I am awed by what desperate people will do in their hope for a better life. And I am inspired by what they are willing to endure. How much discomfort am I willing to put up with for the better life that Christ offers me I wonder?

The only thing stronger than fear is hope

What fills you will awe as you look forward to the resurrection of Jesus?

What gives you hope?

Where did you get your dose of awe and wonder today?

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