Wonder

Christmas 2021 

What the world needs now is a little wonder.” 

(The Butterfly Circus, 2009 Film)

Wonder: Dandelion seeds dancing as you exhale and the comfort of a gentle nurse at the side of your hospital bed. The passion in a teenager’s eyeballs as they tell you of your folly and their insight. Whispered conversations with your pet rabbit and kindness basically encountered anywhere. Wonder alchemises gold in our bellies, and we manifest its glow.

And the glow warms us as we tiptoe closer to the winter solstice. Cherishing the light that remains and embracing the dark in which He dwells too. Silver-grey winter skies beckon us toward 2022 and the adventures ahead. Wonder, the best travelling companion, meets us at Christmas in story and song. Wonder quietens the fear that speaks loud over the airwaves. It reminds us that restoration is the final word of the One who inhabits and transforms our lives. 

I ask the Spirit to breathe over my imagination. Christmas can be speed read. But sometimes a single word arrests us and that word itself tells a story.

Mary.

The name Mary was derived from the ancient Hebrew name Miriam. The root meaning is beloved, and also bitter. 

Only in the wonder of God’s interactions with us could beloved and bitter form the name of one He called blessed above all others. Only He could bless those ingredients and without denying the presence of either, find in that temple the perfect home for His very own son to dwell, to incubate, to be formed.

Mary. 

Her name also means rebelliousness and drop of the sea. A drop of the sea we have rendered heavy with the sorrow, stories, and the bodies of those forced to wander. Sea that testifies to our rebellion against the truth that there was never them and us. There is only me and you. One-der. We can still return. Re-member the body there is only one of. Remember her yes to Him who comes close. Close enough to redeem the story we are currently writing, and birth a new story in us and through us. 

We each have received an invitation, and have a yes to give. Yes to His hovering over all bitterness and belovedness in us and somehow incarnating Himself in and through us. Yes to holding the hope of restoration for our communities and nations. Yes to the wonders that could manifest this year through highly favoured me and you. Wonders that could be conceived in and birthed through us. Wonders to be discovered in each other, in the heavens, on the earth and under the earth. 

Those who seek, He says, find. May you find wonder this Christmas. The world needs you right now.

Wonder-full you.