Boredom with the Bible seems to be a theme I’ve been hearing lately. From friends who find Bible reading tedious, to students struggling to memorize Scripture for their Bible class, to the dull disinterest of some of the teenagers at my school’s Wednesday morning chapel, familiarity with Scripture appears to have muted interest in it. Chaucer wrote familiarity breeds contempt. I think familiarity also robs us of wonder.
Every day I walk out my door desensitized by the predictability of my surroundings. The huge oaks bordering my yard, the conversation of the birds perching on their branches, the scurrying squirrels playing chase around their trunks, the rabbits twitching in their shade, and the complexity and uniformity of their leaves and acorns are so familiar to my senses that I barely take notice.
Could it be the profound truths of Scripture have become like my oak trees-so familiar we are dulled to their profundity? If so, what can be done to cultivate wonder over the things of God, to cause “amazement to seize” us, leading us to cry, like the people who witnessed Jesus healing the paralytic in Luke 5:26, “We have seen extraordinary things today?”
Thoughtful Observance
When I sit in my yard in the summertime, and thoughtfully observe those grand oaks-the enormity and strength of their boughs, the gravity-defying drawing of water from the ground, the utility of the veins in the leaves, the crafted artistry of the acorns, the scratchy grip of the squirrels, and each peculiar song of the birds-wonder wells within me.
But what about the “things unseen” (2 Corinthians 4:18)? How can wonder with God’s Word be cultivated? The answer is in the same way we cultivate wonder with nature: through thoughtful observance.
Familiar Yet Compelling
Take John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” This is perhaps the most familiar passage in all of Scripture, and can easily be overlooked for its familiarity. Yet John 3:16 houses the entirety of God’s plan of redemption! A thoughtful observance of it should compel us to great wonder.
For
For what? In the previous verses, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisee Nicodemus, explaining the meaning of the eternal Kingdom and the necessity of becoming “born again” (John 3:1-21). He is pointing out that God sent Jesus to save the entire world, not just the Jewish nation. And those who look to him will, as the Israelites in the Old Testament looked to the bronze serpent, have eternal life (Numbers 21:8-9). Why should this evoke wonder? Because in the story of the bronze serpent, a foreshadowing of the entire purpose of God’s relationship to man is premeditated. God’s plan for redemption was foretold long before Christmas. This is better than any Star Wars universe plot!
God so loved the world
God loves the world because it declares his glory. The astounding complexity of the universe, with all its majesty, intricacy, and power, was the result of an overflow of love poured out from the perfect intimacy of the Trinity. God’s creation points us, his exiled image bearers, to him (Romans 1:20). God loved the world into existence, and is loving it even now into redemption.
That he gave his only Son
How does a holy God accept the return of his exiled creatures who, on their own, are so far from holiness they cannot stand in his presence? He sends a substitute to stand in their place, a perfect image bearer to exchange his righteousness for their sin. The Son left the beauty and comfort of his Father’s side, confining his eternal being into the finite flesh of the creatures he had set apart to bear his image. God then knew pain, and grief, and temptation, and limitation. Only a loving King would lower himself to save what he had every right to destroy. It is a wondrous story, indeed!
That whoever believes in him shall not perish
The Bible teaches that to perish means to be eternally separated from God, no longer receiving anything good from him (Matthew 10:28). To perish means being utterly alone in our existence, with no hope of rescue. To believe this is to bow before it in wonder and fear, which is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7), which breeds more wonder!
But have eternal life.
This of all phrases should compel us to utmost heights of wonder and joy! C.S. Lewis said joy is “an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction.” When I earnestly and thoughtfully read Scripture, I often experience an itch I cannot scratch. Because there is nothing on earth that can satisfy the longing I feel for being finished with this earth and inhabiting my true home. Hebrews 11:16 says,
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
What city? Revelation 21:21-25 explains,
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.
This is no fairy tale. It is the stunning future home of all followers of Christ. When we grasp the reality of this, for this is ultimate reality, wonder and joy press in, and our eyes are opened to “behold the wondrous things” God has done (Psalm 119:18). May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ open your eyes to the wonder and matchless beauty of his world, and of his wonderful Word.