Awe and Wonder
Do you know what those are? Cyathus striatus, also known as “Splash Cups.” They are mushrooms. At ¼- 5/8″ high and wide, they are the largest mushrooms in a group called birds’ nests fungi. My husband, Jeff, and I saw some on our vacation last week. I squealed with delight when we found them. We’re aspiring mushroom hunters, as well as being in the running for Nerdiest Couple of the Year. But, come on, aren’t they amazing?!
How about this?
Right here in our own state, there is a little piece of heaven named the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. Kilmer was the guy who wrote the poem that begins, “I think that I shall never see, A poem lovely as a tree…” In the forest bearing his name, you will find oaks, poplars and hemlocks that tower over your head. One hemlock we saw was easily 24′ around. Standing in the midst of an old growth forest, with great expanses of mosses and ferns, dwarfed by the giants with breezes whispering through their leaves made my heart soar with joy.
I see God in nature. I see His hand in the Grand Canyon, His eye for beauty in fungi and flowers, His mind in the wildly complex world of microbiology, His majesty in the trees that reach their branches toward heaven day and night. I experience God’s laughter in the playfulness of otters, His holiness in the eruption of volcanoes, His power in the depth and breadth of the seas and His crazy sense of humor in the oddball world of quantum mechanics.
When I get moving too quickly and I let my schedule get so full that I don’t allow myself the time to get out into the middle of the woods periodically, I get grumpy. Oh, I usually keep doing all the things that I’m “supposed” to be doing, but my heart starts to shrink and my joy, my peace and my sense of awe and wonder, begin to wither and dry up. I start getting homesick for God.
What fills your heart so full of joy that you feel like it could just burst? What creates awe and wonder in your soul? Do you take time to be awed by God? Is there room for child-like wonder?
I see God in mushrooms. Where do you see him?
- Written by Alicia Hemphill
August 4th, 2007 at 7:22 am
I see awe… my heart burst with joy… in the face of newborns… in the first conversation between 2 year olds… some times even in the cry of a little one… Talk about miracles – wow!
August 7th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
I saw and truely found God in Ukraine. I saw Him everyday in the faces of deaf children who come from broken homes and let you love on them. I heard Him in the stories that were told of overcoming abuse. He lives in the orphan who was so serious and sad for the first 5 days of camp, and then began to pray and smile and laugh everyday.