I remember the first time I saw the Rocky Mountains. I was just a kid but I remember. I remember driving across Kansas watching through the windshield and the family contest of who would see them first . My mom always won but I think she cheated, because she remembered at what point on the trip the mountains became visible. We were reminiscing over Christmas a few weeks ago about this and she piped off the name of the town where the mountains initially are visible from. Limon Colorado. It wasn’t cheating, she was astonished too and it made such an impression that she couldn’t forget it. Thanks Mom for taking me to Colorado all those years. I remember how excited I was to experience seeing the mountains for real, like not in pictures but to actually see them. They are truly astonishing. Every time since that first time I can say I am truly astonished to experience the mountains.
I have a friend who Pastors a church in Telluride Colorado, smack in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. Seasonally they have “Mountain Top Services”, seasonally because obviously some times of the year accessing the mountain tops is a little more difficult. Every day he gets to wake up and look outside and be astonished at God’s awesome handiwork. I am secretly jealous occasionally to be able to have mountain top worship services right there in the midst of the astounding beauty of God’s handiwork. That would be so cool.
I wonder if he, now that he has been in Colorado for several years, right there in the mountains every day, if he is still astonished by them? I wonder if he and I were to trade places if I would loose the astonishment I feel over the mountains and God’s awesome creation if I lived and ministered there.
- to be filled with sudden and overpowering surprise or wonder; amazed:
This last week in my devotional and prayer time I was reading in the gospel of Mark and I came to this verse: “Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Mark 1:21-22. I sensed Holy Spirit saying to me in that moment “Are you astonished with Jesus’ teaching or have you lost your astonishment to familiarity” I felt conviction over my own familiarity and my loss of astonishment.
I began to pray and ponder the state of the Christian church in America today, the state of Christians. I began to ask God if the state we have come to in Christianity is one of familiarity that causes us to be complacent and apathetic over the teaching’s of Jesus and God’s word. I felt the ache of heartbreak as I prayed that prayer. I think if we ask ourselves honestly we all would have to say yes we have, to some degree anyway. I thought about the churches I have pastored in, and the people I had pastored over the years and I wondered to myself, did I treat God’s word in a fashion that was filled with overpowering wonder? Did my treatment of God’s word cause those who were hearing me to be overpowered with wonder over Jesus? I thought about my children, had I led them towards the overpowering wonder of Jesus His word? How about my wife? Have I led my wife towards that overpowering wonder of Jesus?
As I have been wrestling with these questions this week I pose the question to you readers. Are you astonished with Jesus? Have you become complacent and apathetic because of your perceived familiarity. Wrestle with this friends, let God become astonishing to you once again. Become overpowered with wonder over Jesus. Let your heart become stirred again.
You’re welcome, Son. Those days hold happy memories! And yes, I am astonished at God’s handiwork as I view different parts of this great world that He has created, but I am more astonished in the fact that He loved me so much that He would take my place on the cross of Calvary to pay the penalty for my sin. And that He loves me enough to want me to come to Him daily in a personal relationship with Him. He is astonishing!