DJ Turner is a contract worker for Front Range Christian School, and has served the school as an employee, step-parent, and contract worker over the past 15 years.
Humility, Hope, and Wonder
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4)
In the book of Matthew, Jesus tells us that unless we become humble like children, we will never enter the Kingdom of God (18:1-5). I struggled with this passage for years, as it was always taught to me through the lens of innocence. It is difficult for a woman who has been broken in so many ways to claw her way back to any semblance of innocence. Experiences have made me jaded and distrusting in many ways (some friends have told me they worry it’s why I live in a tiny, remote town in the mountains). But several years ago, I happened upon a book tucked into a dingy corner of a used bookstore that taught me a different way to consider the humility of a child, and it has been reinforced in my life again and again when watching the students at FRCS and interacting with the children around my neighborhood. An Apology for Wonder was a graduate thesis of Sam Keen, an American author, philosopher, and professor. While I don’t agree with all of the assertions of the book, this is the passage that opened my eyes on possibilities for the humility of a child:
Wonder in the child is the capacity for sustained and continued delight, marvel, amazement, and enjoyment. It is the capacity of the child to approach the world as if it were a smorgasbord of potential delights, waiting to be tested. It is the sense of freshness, anticipation, and openness that rules the life of a healthy child…Reality is a gift, a delight, a surprise…To wonder is to live in the world of novelty rather than law, of delight rather than obligation, and of the present rather than the future.
As an adult, when I am able to experience this kind of wonder in the world around me, I begin to understand what the Psalmist is saying: “what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” How can a person filled with awe and wonder for the things that God has created and the things that he has done in the world not be humbled by that same sense of wonder?
Perhaps this is part of what Jesus was referring to when he calls us to be like children. His creation surrounds us, and we are invited to see the world in all its possibilities rather than feeling burdened by obligation, bound by law, or stagnant in our lives. When we enter into the presence of God, whether it’s in church, on campus, a conversation with friends, in his Word, or being out in his creation, we are invited into a faith that is alive with potential, rich with possibility, and filled with hope.
In his book, Rainbows for a Fallen World, Calvin Seerveld writes: ”It is the very nature of creation that the whole world is like a burning bush—even though we walk around all the time with our shoes on.” It seems then, that the key to becoming as humble as a child is not to try to embrace innocence but to be aware of God’s presence and handiwork around me. When I stop and pay attention, I might hear God in the rustling leaves of the trees, or taste him in the sweet strawberries I ate with breakfast, or feel his touch as a breeze blows across my cheek. And then I might be able to see God in my neighbor, the students of FRCS, or a coworker. When I experience God in this way—filled with hope for his promises and secure in the constancy of his love—perhaps in that humble state, I can take off my shoes and acknowledge that I am walking on holy ground.
