Be Still: A Simple Guide To Quiet TimesSample

Be Still: Learn to Wonder

In today’s passage, we have the story of an encounter Jacob had with God. Afterwards, he said: “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”(Gen. 28:10–17)

“Surely God is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” I would hate that to happen to me, to look back over my days, my months, or even my years and think surely God was in this place, and I was unaware of it.

Our imagination, our ability to wonder and taking the time to reflect on what we see, and notice, will increase our awareness of God in everyday life.

The word imagination comes from the verb imaginari ‘picture to oneself’. It can help if you picture yourself as part of God’s greater story.

We can engage our imagination in our appreciation of all that is around us, all that God has created. It can help you to start to notice God through the ordinary and the everyday, it can help you to wonder.

Which we can bring back to our quiet times, journal about, think about, give thanks for.

Worship is born in wonder.

In Genesis, we read that God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

God reflected on creation and saw that it was good.

We should not only reflect on the Bible but also on the world we live in. This practice can shape our quiet time.

Has photographic and image-rich media robbed us of the ability to wonder at the ordinary, so that life only looks good when we see it through a filter?

A filtered life can rob us of wonder: if we’re not careful, our appreciation of what is beautiful becomes distorted.

There is beauty in toast, in wrinkled skin, in industrial skylines. There is beauty in barren deserts. There is beauty in hospitals. There is beauty in rust.

We need to stop, see the beauty, and wonder.

Our quiet times should be more than a practical part of our Christian life. They are the place where we reflect with awe, reverence and wonder on all that the Lord has said, done and created.

Reflect on your day and give thanks to God for his creation. You might like to journal about it if you can.

What have you seen today that has made you wonder? Where have you seen beauty?