Life Lost Its Color? You Can Get It Back

Probably the most astonishing sight I’ve seen lately is video of my husband hanging out with sharks.

We are on an archipelago of 330 islands that make up the country of Fiji. Dan is scuba diving as I sit in our private yard with the “Beware: Coconuts Falling” sign on the largest palm tree, and the hammock and the blue sea beyond.

We weren’t in Fiji long before we discovered some rather astonishing things. Have you ever marveled at the beauty beneath the seas? Or observed a blue starfish? Have you ever kayaked through a mangrove canopy? Or walked through a Fijian village and been high-fived by children crying, “Bula!” which means “hello” and “welcome”?

Have you experienced connection with people from a very far and different culture who laugh at the same things, who show deep kindness and carry the same hopes and dreams for themselves and their children?

Do You Feel Like Life Lost Its Color?

I can’t help but think that if we’re awakened to the beauty and astonishment in nature and in the people around us—if we truly notice and pay attention and think about how it all got here—then we surely must know there’s a Creator. Because none of these things evolved on their own. These wonders of nature and of humankind are the handiwork of a creative God.

Tish Harrison Warren, author and former New York Times news columnist, wrote “A Prayer for Re-Enchantment.” I love the full poem, but these are my favorite lines:

Wake us to the astonishment of being loved by a God

who is both infinite and closer than our breath—

Familiar, yet never garden variety.

Common, yet never old hat.

Cosmic, yet never out of reach.

If there’s a creative God who has made all this for our delight—and there is—then how much must He love us?

Yes, there is suffering, and war, and human trafficking, and dictators who wreak havoc, and cancer, and poverty on this broken planet. But God wasn’t the one who broke it. It’s a result of mankind turning its back on a good, good Father.

You Don’t Need to Travel to Find Wonder

Your environment

I don’t think it takes a trip to a South Pacific island to discover the handiwork of a Creator God. I live in a gorgeous region of the Pacific Northwest where there is so much snow-capped-evergreen-skyblue-mountain-lake beauty. Is there natural gorgeousness in your location that you maybe see every day to the point where you don’t see it anymore?

Your people

What about the people in your life? Do you have children? Are you happily married? Do you belong to a riotous group that’s loud and noisy and messy and loving—parents, siblings, cousins, grandkids? Family is, indeed, an astonishment.

Currently I’m part of a walking/hiking troupe, a writers’ critique crew, a women’s Bible study, a Family Kitchen team that feeds the homeless, and a couple of life groups. These people are beautiful and giving and kind. If you don’t have these kinds of friends to be astonished about, ould you consider joining a reading club, a crew of volunteers, or a knitting posse—not so much for the activity, but for the opportunity to stand amazed at the value of friendships.

Our God 

And then there is God who created us, God who loves having us near, who knows the number of hairs on our heads, and the deepest longings in our hearts. As the poet wrote, “Wake us to the astonishment of being loved by a God who is near.”

I think being amazed simply requires new vision. It requires training our eyes to see the value of the human beings God placed in our lives, to observe what mysteries the Creator has made, and to take note that the Creator Himself wants a deep and loving Father-child relationship with us—wonder of wonders.

I believe we are called to marvel at all the astonishments in our lives as we inhabit our small corner of the world.

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Have a desire to see the world with new eyes? Listen to this podcast episode to reclaim your joy: Feeling Discontent? Fix These 3 Areas of Your Life – 287