If you watch a small child closely, you will quickly realize that just about everything in life is a mystery to her and this is exciting and energizing. For a small child the mystery of everything means that nothing is tedious and nothing is work. Everything is play. I can remember spending hours outside watching ants walk back and forth or birds fly through the air. I wondered what they were doing. I wondered how birds could soar through the sky. I wondered what made the sky blue. I wondered where the stars went during the day. I wondered and wondered and the mystery of it all was marvelous.
As we grow older we learn the whys and wherefores of many of our questions. And even for those questions for which we do not know the answers, we become accustomed to the world around us. The ants are a nuisance not something to wonder over. The birds are just there. The sky is just blue. The stars are blocked out by the sunlight. We lose our sense of awe and mystery, and we lose one of the greatest pleasures of life.
Advent is a time to reengage with the mystery that is life. For, though some things are no longer a mystery to us once we reach adulthood, much of life still remains a mystery. Why am I here? What is my purpose? What happens to me when I die? Where is God? Does God exist? Does God love me? How on earth did God become human? The list of mysteries goes on and on. As adults we tend to dislike mystery, but perhaps that is only because we have forgotten the gift that mystery brings to our lives. This Advent season may your mystery return to your life and may Christmas day be one filled with the awe and excitment of a little child.
Suzannah Rohman
As we grow older we learn the whys and wherefores of many of our questions. And even for those questions for which we do not know the answers, we become accustomed to the world around us. The ants are a nuisance not something to wonder over. The birds are just there. The sky is just blue. The stars are blocked out by the sunlight. We lose our sense of awe and mystery, and we lose one of the greatest pleasures of life.
Advent is a time to reengage with the mystery that is life. For, though some things are no longer a mystery to us once we reach adulthood, much of life still remains a mystery. Why am I here? What is my purpose? What happens to me when I die? Where is God? Does God exist? Does God love me? How on earth did God become human? The list of mysteries goes on and on. As adults we tend to dislike mystery, but perhaps that is only because we have forgotten the gift that mystery brings to our lives. This Advent season may your mystery return to your life and may Christmas day be one filled with the awe and excitment of a little child.
Suzannah Rohman