A week ago I was at a friend’s house celebrating the Fourth of July. With dusk came the fireflies (or lightning bugs as they call them here in the Midwest). Having spent most of my life in the Northwest, I rarely saw a firefly, let alone hundreds of them. But here on a warm, summer evening you can find them glittering above the grass and bushes just as the sun sets.
I was captivated by the hundreds of little sparkling lights, so much so that I wasn’t even paying attention to the fireworks. My friend noticed. “Don’t lose your wonder,” he told me. At first I didn’t understand what he meant, then I realized he was referring to the fireflies.
How many of us “grow up”, move on, and in the process lose our wonder of the small things around us?
I spent the next day thinking of all the things that awe me: the peaceful sound of rain hitting the window panes, a thunderstorm blazing across the open plains, a cat’s purr. Newborn babies, gardens, the scent of a flower, the sound of the ocean’s waves.
It is in these moments of wonder I see the fingerprints of God. They connect me to my creator.
I can still be distracted by all the busyness and demands of being an adult, a mother, and a writer. But I don’t want to lose my wonder.
How about you? What are moments of wonder for you?
Morgan L. Busse 
A moment of wonder for me is to sit on out patio early in the morning for my prayer and devotion. The heat of the day has started yet (I live in Texas), the birds are waking up, and the neighborhood is quiet. Makes a great atmosphere for spending time with our Lord.
I used to live in the country on a hill overlooking a valley with a forest. When I needed a respite, I would take a walk down in the woods, in the quiet of human noises, there was just the fresh air with the quiet rustle of the breeze through the trees, the birds, and small animals. I could think, and dream and talk to God and get my mind settled and clear. Afterwards I could go back to my busy life, refreshed.
My girls….constantly. Watching them grow, change, and interact with each other. Each time I think….really think….about them being MY girls and that I get the opportunity to raise them, it makes me sit back in wonder.
The velvet feel of a flower petal, my little dog’s grin, the bright-eyes of a toddler, imagining what it will be like to gather before the Father and His Son, are some of my wonder-filled moments. Fireflies: God’s little light bulbs? 😉
Fireflies/Lightning bugs is one of those moments of wonder for me. I used to think they were only creations of Disney and not real bugs. When I moved to Missouri, Daylen introduced me to them by taking me out one night to a giant field and turning off the car lights. They were everywhere! Like a sea of stars. We try to stop and do that every year. I still get so awed that I can barely breathe.
For me leaving Texas and moving to Kansas there was so many little things
Growing up next to the Gulf of Mexico was always so wonderful for me always a place of wonder for me.
But living in Kansas just things like trees & flowers were a wonder for me .
The glistening of the water and the blue of the late night waves .
The smell of wild flowers and trees after a storm life is amazing and beautiful.
Waking up early enough to see the sunrise on the clouds. It’s amazing: from grays and blues to electric orange, pink, purple, dark whites, and yellow before the sky is bright!
Also watching the little, creepy, awesome creation of God called the spider run around inside of a cup (but please, stay inside!). The leg movement, the varying reactions you get from each spider, and what they do once you let them out. It’s different each time! The one I caught right now keeps playing dead…and wigs out all over the place when I move the cup. Poor thing; my sister shot at it with her water pick!
Pretty much anything to do with nature and human beings made in God’s image makes me pause; sometimes mentally, sometimes physically, sometimes both. 😉
God bless!