To look for and to experience wonder one need only to watch small children in their daily activities. Because they have no previous experience, they encounter new things all the time. When they see something unusual, their eyes and mouth open wide with amazement and genuine interest. Everything new is a wonder and their faces reflect their curiosity and interest in the subject. They never stop discovering and asking questions. This is an example of how wonder changes into learning and leads to knowledge.
I vividly remember one of my first wonders—a yellow globe in the Christmas tree that reflected a fascinating light and showed distorted images, including one of myself. It was unreal and magical, but not as puzzling as the next one, when I tried to catch a beam of sunshine that penetrated the room through a cracked door. Years later, I decided to determine exactly when daylight changed into night. I spent countless evenings attempting catch that precise moment, and I still haven’t succeeded in finding out. What I have realized is that the wonders I encountered in childhood have never left my being.
Everyone experiences wonder in different ways. Sometimes the sense of wonder is so enigmatic that it overpowers judgment—it stops the observer, almost freezes him or her. Sometimes it brings us to a childlike state, stripping away our jaded veneer. Always it provides an unforgettable memory, a mental landmark whose splendor is readily recalled and still enthralls.
The wonder momentum is typically connected with something that was unexpected. Perhaps because of this—because there are no guidelines or rules with which to identify an occasion or measure its effects, wonder is rarely found as the subject of research and books. Yet it is most certainly a metaphysical subject, encompassing the very essences of earth, spirit, and the cosmos.
To study wonder I began with the observation of unusual events and read what others said about them. Using comparative and parallel artistic, religious, and scientific methods, I found little that shed light on the phenomena. Clearly I had to look beyond the obvious established areas and investigate possible related factors.
Wonder may be studied tangentially with many disciplines, but at the end I believe it can stand by itself as a distinct metaphysical, spiritual topic. The reason is as simple as the matter of wonder itself: it is real, it is unique and divine, and certainly affects our thinking and lives. It stimulates the human curiosity to investigate and learn more about its reasons and effects. Because anything that makes everyone to have a feeling of awe is worth studying it, I intend to shine a light into this matter.
When I spent time in the Big Island of Hawaii, I witnessed the wonder of how the dry Earth surface came into existence. Despite my fear I walked around the caldera of an active volcano still boiling and fuming. Right there, under my feet, I saw fresh dark lava petrified in shiny layers, waiting for Nature to bring dust and seeds to make it fertile. Above, the phantasmagoric clouds were moving across the sky, but rain, I was told, rarely drops on this moon landscape area. To my increased wonder, only miles away I entered into a dense jungle where rain pours twice a day, feeding the abundant vegetation. A special decked path made it possible to walk among the closely tangled trees and plants. Farther down, I saw streams of red-hot magma pouring into the ocean with spectacular displays of steaming explosions. That incandescent flood extends the island surface with an additional black sand littoral each year. Everywhere I looked something else took my breath away, and speechless, I felt like I witnessed part of the Genesis.
No lesser wonders were experienced when I drove through the Canadian Rockies and faced sharp and tall mountains lined up along deep valleys with streams and lakes of a dazzling emerald color. Most amazing were the massive glaciers hanging on the top of the mountains for the last two million years, part of them sliding and opening ravines of a rare splendor of green forests and blues of streams rolling over white rocks. It was a display of how Earth was reshaped by climate and gravity, providing lessons that complemented my wonder from Hawaii. Both overwhelming “wow!” experiences implanted unforgettable images and ideas for my reflections about Creation, its Maker, and the geology of the Earth.
Flying above the Grand Canyon was another “wow!” moment that has stayed with me. The undeniably spectacular wonder made me think of the Big Bang.
The hand of God producing wonders is a huge theme in the theological circles, since any religion is based on miracles or other convincing supernatural marvels. To look at the infinite number of stars at night and wonder who made them, or to think that another being is watching the Earth was probably the first conscious wonder. Guessing whether or not there was a God or Creator was likely the first serious question humans asked themselves at the dawn of time. And that is exactly what The Hand of God (1999) tried to answer through its spectacular pictures of the universe.
Reflections on the Nature of God (2004) is another lavishly illustrated book with its sole purpose “to stimulate wonder” through the “pictorial or verbal comment” showing that supernatural forces create an infinity of wonders. Many of those wonders are right in full view on our earth, as seen in the second part of the book which shows astonishing pictures of landscapes and animals to affirm the irremovable presence of God and His Creation. It provides a glimpse of God’s benevolence in gifting us with such wonders. It gives us a chance to appreciate the unthinkable we can witness as a blessing. For any wonder we see, there is an opportunity to discover God’s presence among us.
As I was writing this, a minuscule bug kept moving like a red dot on my immaculate white paper. To many people this might not be a wonder, just another trespassing insect to be instantly killed. I felt like a cave man caught in total astonishment, thinking that the almost invisible alive dot has most of my bodily functions and enough brain to stop and investigate me. After which the frail bug changed direction around my pen and, confident in its survival abilities, rushed to avoid me. I could not muffle a chuckle thinking how powerful I was as in a gently Gulliverian fashion, I blew the spectacular intruder off the paper. My wish was not to harm, but to help my co-breather land in a better spot.
This wonderful random incident happened precisely when I was ready to write something scholarly and profound about the topic of wonder. Instead, I became a wonder myself reflecting that the microscopic companion and I were made of the same elements as the stars, equally dwarfed by the tolerant universal forces. How minuscule I am compared to the Earth which is equal minuscule compared to our galaxy which is most minuscule comparing to the rest of infinity…Indeed, like the visiting bug, I am cosmic dust, but ambitious enough to discover the matter of wonder.
Back to Earth, I realize that the immense majority of things exist or were made for practical purposes, to keep the natural balance or to feed a need. Among these countless and eventless things we hardly notice, once in a while a wonder catches our attention and enriches our thinking and vision of life. When it happens, I am convinced is not a lonely incident, but a result of its own matter and energy calling for a special display, enough reason to keep me going to search further.
The feeling of wonder is an integral part of us. It makes itself known through admiration, amazement, prayer, intuition, and other instant reactions. It electrifies us and connects us with the divine.