Wake Up to Wonder
Chris Lee
3 min read ⭑
Doesn’t St. Francis of Assisi appear to be the patron saint of birdbaths? Think about it. If you see him depicted, it is quite often in a church garden or retreat house immortalized in statue form surrounded by animals, whether doves, rabbits or a wolf as a birdbath. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind a Franciscan birdbath in my garden, though many of my friends would cringe. That might be one of my reasons for wanting one!
Francis, of course, loved animals and creation. It was common for him to burst out in rapturous praise while walking with his brothers in the fields around Assisi. In a funny story I once heard, Francis runs to the church in the center of town in the middle of the night and manically rings the church bell, which was usually a sign of an invading army or some news of tremendous import. When the townspeople gathered to see what was happening, he shouted to them, “Have you seen the moon tonight? Look at how big and beautiful it is!” I can’t help but giggle to myself at what the people must have thought.
On more than one occasion, one of my daughters has picked up a big leaf and handed it to me saying, “Wow! Daddy, look — a leaf!” Kind of silly, I know. But there is something there about the humility to be amazed by simple beauty.
Have we lost this?
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Go out into nature and discover God again in its beauty.
Stand in the rain and know God is present.
Sense God’s great power echoed in a thunderstorm.
See God’s handiwork as he raises the sun or sets it to bed.
Wake up to wonder.
Breathe.
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Creation, of course, is brutal too. There is no getting away from that: packs of wolves that devour the weak deer, earthquakes that destroy homes and break up families. Creation needs redemption and restoration too. The Bible promises that death and destruction will fade away in the new heaven and new earth. We will get to that shortly. But here I want to encourage you that you don’t need to be afraid of falling into error when thinking about creation and its wonder. As Francis did, simply glorify the Creator — not the creation. Let the earth’s beauty and power lead you to praise the One who made it. The road of your life can be focused on discovering God again and again through all of h is creation.
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Stand in the rain.
Take in a sunset.
Walk barefoot on the grass.
Recognize how all of this can communicate something of God’s glory to you.
Wake up to wonder.
Breathe.
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It takes my breath away how Communion is rooted in the earthiness of creation. Jesus takes bread and calls it his body. He holds a cup of wine and calls it his blood. Jesus uses elements of the earth itself to symbolize his own body. Spend some time rediscovering the deep mystery of Communion. There is much I could say about this, but for now I’ll say these few words:
Taste and see that God is good.
In the Eucharistic liturgy, which we use in the Church of England and is also used in other denominations, there is an option to say the following as the minister prepares the bread and wine. It is called prayers of preparation of the table.
Priest: Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation: through your goodness we have this bread to set before you, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life.
People: Blessed be God forever.
Priest: Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation: through your goodness we have this wine to set before you, fruit of the vine and work of human hands. It will become for us the cup of salvation.
People: Blessed be God forever.
Receiving Communion is arguably the greatest act of worship that we can offer, as it celebrates the greatest act of worship ever offered: Jesus dying on a cross in obedience to the Father’s will. This all involves creation: us eating and drinking of the bread and wine and the One who created it, the Word made flesh, Jesus.
* * *
Taste and see that God is good.
Wake up to wonder.
Breathe.
Chris Lee is a young vicar who has taken the internet by storm. With an ever growing online presence, Chris has over 170k followers on Instagram. He helps and inspires them every day with his 60-second sermons, full of bite-sized wisdom for busy people. Chris has over 350 million views on the videos he appears in on YouTube. Chris is author of The omg effect: 60-Second Sermons to Live a Fuller Life and Know You Are Beloved: Press Pause, Breathe Deeply, and Be Known by God.
Taken from Know You Are Beloved: Press Pause, Breathe Deeply, and Be Known by God by Chris Lee. Copyright © 2024. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.