Christine Aroney-Sine - The Gift of Wonder: Creative Practices for Delighting in God

Have we dismissed the child within us and lost the joy of life and the delight in God that emerges when we play and laugh and marvel at the world around us?

Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs (Mark 10:14 NRSV). Have we dismissed the child within us and lost the joy of life and the delight in God that emerges when we play and laugh and marvel at the world around us?

Ask kids what they dont like about adults and they say we dont have enough fun. We dont enjoy life enough and we dont enjoy God enough either. To enjoy God more fully and recognize Gods delight in us, we must rediscover the world of childhood and unleash the inner child hidden deep in our souls.

I posted this question on Facebook: What are the childlike characteristics that make us fit for the kingdom? I was amazed at the enthusiastic response:

• playfulness

• awe and wonder

• imagination

• curiosity

• love of nature

• compassion

• unconditional trust

These all emerged as childlike qualities that my friends thought were important preparation for the new world Jesus came to introduce us to. Of course, others pointed out that children can also be aggravating, bothersome, and intrusive at the most inopportune moments. Yet as Judy Brown Hull suggests in her insightful book When You Receive a Child: Reflections on Luke 9:46-48, even these can be gifts from God that reflect something of the kingdom and the intrusiveness of Jesus as he enters our lives. Unselfconscious, bothersome, unpredictablechildren have another similarity to Jesus: while they are fully humanthey do not fit tidily into the totally adult world any better than Jesus did. She provocatively goes on to suggest that this might be because Jesus reality is closer to that of a child than an adult.

Having listed childlike characteristics that make us fit for the kingdom, responders often commented, Ive never thought about this before. Delighting in fun and laughter as a pathway to enjoying God is something most of us never consider.

We suffer from play deprivation, nature deficit disorder, awe depletion, compassion fatigue, imagination suppression, and more. As a result I think we suffer from God deprivation too.

I am increasingly convinced that rediscovering our inner child is essential for our spiritual health. It has become an important and delightful journey for me and is the central theme of The Gift of Wonder.

Awe and wonder, imagination and curiosity connect us to the God who is present in every moment and everything in a way that nothing else can. They enrich our contemplative core and expand our horizons to explore new aspects of our world and our God. Believing in a God who loves to plant gardens with dirty hands and make mud pies to put on the eyes of the blind, or who does happy dances and sings with joy over all of humanity and in fact all of creation has revolutionized my faith.

Ironically, my life has been filled with joy and satisfaction, though I have rarely linked this to my spiritual practices. My childhood in Australia was filled with fun family summer caravan adventures. I studied medicine and delighted in my years as a family physician in New Zealand. In 1981 I joined a fledgling part of Youth with a Mission called Mercy Ships and enjoyed the privilege of establishing a hospital on board the MV