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Read Wondrously
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READ WONDROUSLY
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“Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel” (Matthew 15:29-31 ESV).
I want to tell you about magic. Do you remember being a child, enamored with magic? The magician stood on stage, pulled a coin from his pocket, asked you to keep your eye on it and...in an instant, like magic, it was gone! Never mind that you spent the rest of the day trying to recreate the trick. Never mind your older brother later told you how to accomplish the trick. In that moment, you were transfixed…transported to a world of wonder and enchantment.
Would it seem strange were I to tell you that God your father has written you a letter—a story, in fact--and he wants you to read it with wonder? To read it with enchantment?
“Wondrous” is such a magnificent word. It means “Inspiring a feeling of wonder or delight.” It can be anything from a feeling that is deeply pleasing and satisfying—that makes you want to hug your papa’s neck—to a feeling of incredible awe that brings you to your knees. Just put yourself in the shoes of the onlookers there in Matthew 15 when Jesus comes to the neighborhood.
“Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.” (Matthew 15:29-31 ESV)
Nearly 300 years ago, Charles Wesley put pen to paper to write these words down, and we have been singing it ever since:
Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory
Till with Thee we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love and praise.
I love that last line: “Lost in wonder, love and praise.”
I wish with all my heart that every believer could see the beauty of my God through the eyes of a child. Then you would know what it means to be lost in wonder.
LOST IN WONDER
Several years ago, I was gifted one of my most treasured possessions: it’s a wardrobe. I could tell you it’s valuable to me because it was made in 1915. That’s true it was, but that is not why I find it valuable. I could tell you it was given to me by the late great Jimmy Allen. That is the reason I used to tell people I value it so much. But even that has taken a back seat to a far more personal reason to love it so.
You see, Jimmy Allen’s old wardrobe has now become Grace’s portal to Narnia. I’ll open those wide wooden doors and she’ll take her place in the transport room. I’ll wave goodbye as we close the gate, and she will wave goodbye to Daddy. After a few seconds, Grace will knock on the inside of the time travel machine. And when the doors fling open, behold, standing before her is not Daddy. Oh no.
For draped with a towel or bedsheet over my head, and skipping with joy, Daddy is now Mr. Tumnus, and Grace’s eyes grown big. We dance. We sing. We enjoy a new world together. And in the midst of it all is Grace–lost in wonder.
I wish you could see it. Even better…I wish we all could experience it from her perspective. We did once.
A researcher walked into a kindergarten class, and drew some squiggly lines on the board. “What do you see, children?” she asked. The answers could fill both sides of any sheet of paper. For the children saw as many things as their imagination would allow them. The same researcher walked down the hall to a high school class. After drawing the same squiggly lines, and asking the same question, she left that room having heard only 2 answers: (1) “squiggly lines,” and (2) “nothing.”
I can still remember the last words of Dr. Milton Tucker’s lecture in my undergraduate biology class: “never lose your sense of wonder.”
…..
When you open your Bible to read, what do you see? More often than not, we see what we have been trained to see–which are well-worn grooves with fully expected answers. A Sunday school class was once asked “what looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, and sounds like a duck?” The student replied, “It sure seems like the answer is ‘a duck’, but since we are in Bible class, the answer must be Jesus.”
How many times have we sat for a lesson on the heroes of the faith, only to endure this exchange:
“Today, class, we are going to study Hannah. What do we learn from Hannah? Oh Hannah was humble. Hannah was obedient. Hannah was grateful. Go be like Hannah.”
We come back the next week and hear these words:
“Today, class, we are going to study Moses. What do we learn from our study of Moses? Oh, Moses was humble. Moses was obedient. Moses was grateful. Go be like Moses.”
I’m almost nervous to even joke about the class the next week–a study of Jesus! You know what we will find. We will find what we already planned to find–the rote script that we place upon every story. And we end up reading and seeing only these 4 squiggly lines, and nothing else.
But if we were lost in wonder, we just might see what no one else sees.
BIBLE READING IS LIKE FALLING IN LOVE
My friend JL Gerhardt wrote a book titled Look To Love: A Better Way To Read The Bible. In this book, she challenges us to view Bible reading like falling in love.
Think about that first letter you received from your significant other the day after they said—for the first time—“I love you.” You read it. I know you read it! But why? What were you looking for? Why kind of questions were you asking yourself when you read it? I bet you weren’t asking these:
How is any of this useful in my daily life?
What are the main points so I can gather them together to figure out the main argument being presented?
Why should I trust anything in this letter?
Do you know why? Because you loved them back. Because you don’t read a love letter the same way you read a dictionary or a history book.
What if we began by seeing the Bible as a love letter from God? Of course it is more than that. But it is no less than that. Just read the Scriptures that emphasize love in getting to know the person and will of God.
Consider how much the Bible focuses on the heart of a person—where their love lies.
Now consider the greatest commandment: to love the Lord your God with all you have and all you are.
…..
Why do so many people not read the Bible? Why do so many who do read the Bible not enjoy reading the Bible? Why do daily Bible reading plans fail and fail miserably? The answer is simple: we think we are doing homework! We don’t think we are reading a love letter, sent from a foreign field, by our dearest love.
Learn to ask new questions:
Where is God?
What is he up to?
What is he like?
How do I love him more?
How can I sense his relentless love in this story?
In other words, ask the question you ask when you are seeking to fall in love.
Bible Reading Is Entering New Worlds
I love that many of our English Bibles use the term “wonder” for signs and miracles given by God (see Exodus 11:9-10). When God showed up with fire and awe, he showed “signs and wonders” among the people.
Wonder is a lovely word. It describes how children see the whole world—in an enchanted way. I once heard that a researcher walked into a kindergarten classroom and drew some squiggly lines on the board. “What do you see?,” he asked. The answers were as wide and wondrous as would be given were they to describe what they saw in the clouds. But that same researcher went to a high school classroom, drew the same squiggly lines, and asked the same question. The only answers received were two: (1) “squiggly lines”, and (2) “nothing.”
Why do we lose our sense of wonder? It is not true that the Lord does “wonders among you” (Joshua 3:5)? Does he not do “wonder upon wonder” (Isaiah 29:14)? The house of the Lord was to be built according to specification, for sure; but it was also to be “great and wonderful” (2 Chron 2:9). Perhaps this is because those who attended the house of the Lord were to be reminded of all of God’s “wonderful deeds” (Psalm 9:1). Even the heavens are called upon to praise God’s “wonders” (Psalm 89:5). Just hear the sorrow in the words of the Psalmist who describes those who “forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them” (Psalm 78:11).
Everything about creation brings wonder to mind. Even you and I are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). This is why we can and should proclaim “wonderful are your works” (Psalm 139:14).
And when we see God at work in our lives, should we not respond the same? Listen to this account of what transpired when people saw Jesus at work in their world: “the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel” (Matt 15:31). Even in Acts, when people saw God at work through the Apostles, “they were filled with wonder and amazement” (Acts 3:10).
We should approach Scripture with the same sense of awe. “Your testimonies are wonderful” (Psalm 119:129). May we read the Bible with this prayer on our lips: “You are the God who works wonders” (Psalm 77:14), and you, O God, are our “Wonderful Counselor” (Isa 9:6).
Scripture calls us to awe and wonder as we search, seek, probe, and discover. Like the characters in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, we enter into the story only to find ourselves in a brand new world. Withouth this sense of awe, we miss out on why we were invited in the first place.
The Bible Is Meant To be Enjoyed
Do yourself a favor and pick up Matthew Mullins’ book Enjoying The Bible. Here are some reflections from that book.
Raise your hand if you have read poetry in the last year. According to a recent survey, only 6-7% of people say “yes.” Why do you think that is? The reason, it seems, is because we are trained to read for information, and poetry doesn’t seem to fall into that category.
I want to say three things about this. First, we need to recognize that much of the Bible is more like poetry than we care to admit (just notice how much of the Bible is “Psalms”). Second, poetry can and does offer information—just think of how love letters tell so much about the other person, ourselves, and our relationship.
But the third thing to mention is that much of our reading is intended to do more than impart information. Scripture is meant to be enjoyed.
Is that a hard sentence to get out of our mouths? Remember that Bible reading is a form of worship—and all forms of worship are intended to do more than impart information.
Why do we sing? If the only reason we sing to God is because we are commanded to sing, we are most to be pitied. “If anyone is merry, let him sing songs” writes James. Singing is instinctive; we sing because we have feelings bursting to get out! God delights in this. And we should delight in this as well. We are more than minds; we are more than brains. We are body, soul, and spirit. Singing often involves moving our hands, tapping our feet, dancing to music, lifting our heads, closing our eyes, etc. Singing brings all parts of us to bear on what we are doing. Do we enjoy it?
Why do we pray? Prayer is release—sharing our souls with the one we love. In the Bible, people lay down, kneel, stand, walk, and even sit when praying to God. People pray with hands held high, while weeping, and while singing with joy. Prayer is an all-of-me experience. Do we enjoy it?
Why do we take the supper of the Lord? We sit at the table and feast with Jesus as members in the Kingdom. We reflect on our relationship with God and we join in sharing the body and blood with other Christians all around us. The Supper involves taste, touch, sight, smell, togetherness, and personal reflection. Do we enjoy it?
And so it is with Bible reading. Whether public or private, alone or in a group, reading the Bible should be an enjoyable experience, in which all-of-me is brought to bear on a journey to know all-about-Him.
Bible Reading Is An Invitation To A Banquet
John W. Kleinig offers us a little primer called God’s Word: A Guide to Holy Scripture. His first chapter is simple: the Bible should be “tasted.” Slowly. Enjoy every morsel. That imagery is not original with him or me—it is given to us by the Bible itself. What God gives us is to be thought of as a feast (Psalm 34:8; Proverbs 9:5-6; Isaiah 25:6-9; 55:1-3; Hebrews 6:4-5). Instead of trying to “prove” the Bible or “argue” about the Bible, what if you tried relishing the Bible? Taste and see that God is good to the very last drop.
The Bible Is Meant To Question Us
Tom Olbricht once said “Scripture is not meant to answer our questions as much as it is written to question us.” Reflect on this powerful sentence. Compare three different “approaches” to Bible reading:
Approach #1: The “Give Me An Answer” Approach. I have a modern question and I go to the Bible to find my answer. So I scour the Bible for every term in my question and come up with an answer—even though the Bible never directly addresses this question! I went to the Bible assuming it was a dictionary or encyclopedia written to answer my specific question. I end up with an “answer” to a question the Bible itself never actually asks.
Approach #2: The “What’s In It For Me” Approach. I read a text with three questions in mind: (1) what am I told to obey? (2) How can I obey it this week? (3) How can I tell my neighbor that he is failing to obey it? I end up with a checklist and bunch of pride.
Approach #3: The “Who Is God” Approach. I read the text to enter into a new world. Yes, I may find answers to some of my often-asked questions. Yes, I may find a call to obey. But I am looking for God to tell me more about Himself. I am looking to immerse myself in Him and His world. I am looking to get out of myself, and lost in His love, grace, mystery, power, and wonder. I go to be changed from the inside out. I go to be challenged and come away with a glowing face.
May I encourage us all to read with approach #3.
These are study notes for the “Dive Deeper” class at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR), an exploration that took place after the sermon “Read Wondrously” on February 18, 2024. The sermon and class are third in a series titled “Read Well: Hear God In Scripture.” The class is live (in-person), but the sermon is available to watch or listen, and will appear on the Life on the West Side podcast (Season 3, Episode 26). Available on all podcast platforms.
Resources For Reading Wondrously
Questions For Discussion:
1. How did you fall in love? What were your first letters like? How did you read them?
2. In what way is the Bible a love letter from God? How would you read it differently if you conceived of it this way?
3. Why does the Bible speak so much about our “hearts”?
4. How can the Bible open up new worlds to us?
5. Is the Bible meant to be enjoyed?
6. How is Bible reading like an invitation to a banquet?
7. Do you let the Bible question you? How can we better do this?
Other Suggested Helps
Chapters/Articles For Further Insight To Accompany This Lesson
JL Gerhardt, Look To Love: A Better Way to Read the Bible (2021).
John W. Kleinig, God’s Word: A Guide to Holy Scripture (Lexham Press, 2022), Chapter 1: “Invitation To A Banquet.”
Matthew Mullins, Enjoying the Bible: Literary Approaches to Loving the Scriptures (Baker Academic, 2021), esp. Introduction and Chap 7: “Why We Worship.”
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My name is Nathan Guy, and I serve as the preaching minister for the West Side Church of Christ in Searcy, Arkansas. In my spare time, I teach classes as an adjunct instructor for St. Louis University and Harding University. I also serve as chairman of the board for the Center for Christian Studies. I am happily married to Katie and am the proud father of little Grace (who is 2) and baby Henry (who is new). You can find more resources on my website over at nathanguy.com. You can follow me on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), Threads, and YouTube.