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?