Wonder

I'm in the middle of reading a very good book called The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. In chapter five he talks about wonder and how modern society has lost touch with being wowed by things that may have amazed us or taken our breath away as children. Brennan Manning quotes Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel near the end of his life saying "never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me." Recently this has been my prayer also. We can live our lives waiting for the next big thing or let the little things in life take our breath away.

On the way home on Tuesday evening Les & I decided to make a short detour and see if we could find a way up to the remains of a castle that we pass nearly every day. This picture was taken as we were driving past last November:


We took off on a nearby side road hoping to find a way up, but no such luck. Lots of little roads to houses, but the most promising roads were gated. Others just didn't look passable for our car...it has AWD but isn't exactly meant for serious offroading.

We drove for a bit through the beautiful countryside and this is where we turned around:


Gorgeous, huh? Just a little dirt road leading through rows of olive trees. It took my breath away and I had to catch the moment before it passed. Here is a close up of the olives:

"Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder. Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice of Your universe. Delight me to see how Your Christ plays in ten thousand places, lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not His, to the Father through the features of men's faces. Each day enrapture me with Your marvelous things without number. I do not ask to see the reason for it all; I ask only to share the wonder of it all." ~Joshua Abraham Heschel