Abraham Heschel States:

“Awarness of the divine begins with wonder.  It is the result of what man does with his higher incomprehension.  The greatest hindrance to such awareness is our adjustment to conventional notions, to mental cliches.  Wonder or radical amazement, the state of maladjustment to words and notions, is therefore a prerequisite for an authentic awareness of that which is”.

     I would say that most of us have experienced this sense of wonder, or “radical amazement” as Heschel put it.  My time in nature is certainly enjoyed from the perspective of the beauty of it all, but I am continually drawn beyond to what is greater that creation itself.  I am drawn to the creator of us and all of nature.  Perhaps my experience is from and overwhelming sense of peace  or from a point of deep resonation with what God cares about, but there is a strong connection.  Because the place that I usually gravitate to is the bay, I often times have this sense of connection to nature and for people who dwell within the skyline of the city in my view.  There is a “simultaneity”, an intersection of both people and of nature and I begin to pray for those that I cannot see who must be dwelling in the city.  I have this sense that God is including me in what is of importance to Him, and I at once can become deeply concerned with what God is concerned with.  There is a sense of pleasure in being with God, but it does not end there, I am communing with God.  There is some sort of unspoken dialogue with God, love is there, and at some level I am one with the one who created me and loves me.  Perhaps I am at once also connected with the others of  creation.  All of us created beings or things united in some harmonious way before the one who made me and holds everyone and everything together.  Whatever it is, certainly God becomes very real to me in the exchange.  I am allowed to see a glimpse of God’s glory and at the same time be a part of what brings Glory to Him.

     What do those times of connection stir up in you?  What wonder?  What sense of God’s glory?

Quote: Abraham Heschel, J., God in Search of Man: a Philosophy of Judaism. pg. 46