creation

Wonderstanding


Wonderstanding:

A combination of the words “wonder” and “understanding,” where “wonder” signifies both reverence and curiosity.

1) The feeling people have after learning something amazing – describing not only a recognition of the beauty of something (such as the world), but the feeling of increased awe experienced after understanding the true complexity of it.

2) The combination of: “an artist’s wonder at the virtuosity of nature with a scientist’s understanding of how it comes to be.” – author Matt Ridley (describing Richard Dawkins’s “The Greatest Show on Earth”).

Urban Dictionary

You won’t find wonderstanding in any standard dictionary. An internet search finds it listed in the Urban Dictionary, where various unofficial words and phrases live. In fact, every time I type it an angry red line appears underneath, which is normally my cue to fix something I’ve obviously misspelled. However, for the duration of this post I’m refusing to make the correction because even though wonderstanding isn’t an official word, I like it. I’m hoping that someday, just like Pinocchio became a real boy, wonderstanding will become a real word. A guy can dream, right?

If you believe, like I do, that God created us and everything else in our world, an examination of how intricate and amazing it is only deepens your sense of wonder. From a mountain in the distance to a living cell under a microscope, this planet we call home is just amazing. I’ve found the greater my understanding of God’s creation, the greater my sense of wonder, so wonderstanding suits me just fine.

God, I don’t know exactly what heaven will be like
though I’m convinced it will be amazing.
You’ve saved us from hell and tasked us to tell
how Jesus did the saving.
This moment before everlasting
deepen my wonder of you, God
and all you’ve made.
Help me fully understand
the cost Jesus paid
before the earthly me fades.
Give me wonderstanding.

Did life begin all on its own
like a million piece puzzle
into the solar winds thrown?
Wonderstanding sees your purpose, God,
as the one creator behind it all.
The smallest bit of life we can view
and smaller
connects with the rest.
That’s wonderstanding.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
John 1:3 NIV

My joy abounds
immersed in your jubilant sounds,
rivers, oceans, waterfalls.
I kneel down before God
in gratitude for it all…
feeling wonderstanding.
Just when I think I know a lot,
you show me just how far I have to go.

All creation rises up, speaking of your glory.
Through all the gifts of sense I discover
a little more of the story.
There’s glorious blinding light
and resounding booming thunder,
the scent of flowers bending in the wind
and the rain heaven sent
speaking more of your wonder.

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;  or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.  Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?  In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.
Job 12:7-10

God, help us know
how small we are
in relation to it all
and still how loved
and cherished by you.
Magnificent God,
master musician and artist,
lead us to be stewards,
adventurers, discoverers, teachers,
forever moved
by wonderstanding.

©Joel Tipple
5/29/2021







Really, God?

I’ve wondered sometimes whether God has ever had occasion to think we all just might be a bad dream. That maybe if he hit the snooze button one more time he might have a better one. A dream where his creation didn’t waste so much time fighting with each other and indulging in ever more imaginative sinful selfishness. But no, God is awake, aware of his creation, including all its flaws, and it’s clear he loves us infinitely, since he sent Jesus to open our way to eternity. We have the freedom, with all the responsibility that freedom entails, to choose a relationship with God on his terms, or to go our own way. I’m convinced the overwhelming crush of evidence supports the argument that God is real, and rewards those who seek him. However, this is a fallen world we live in, where terrible things happen, and not just to people who haven’t chosen to accept eternal life and pursue a closer relationship with God. Although I’m just as susceptible to grief and outrage when bad things happen to good people, I’ve never accepted the premise that being good buys us out of awful stuff. As God’s creation, I believe we never shine more brightly than when we turn to God in the midst of tragedy instead of away.

For the sake of this ministry, we toil tirelessly and are criticized continually, simply because our hope is in the living God. He is the wonderful life-giver of all the children of men, and even more so to those who believe.
1st Timothy 4:10 TPT

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Romans 1:20 ESV

Some Say

I’ve heard some say, “God is dead.”
How could they be so led?
Look around,
at all he’s breathed to life.

I’ve heard some say, “God can’t see.”
But he’s painted so much majesty,
he must know what delights our eyes.

I’ve heard some say, “God can’t hear.”
But I know he counts our words dear,
and responds,
though we judge his sense of time.

I’ve heard some say, “God can’t feel.”
But he knows our burdens
and we’re not left to deal alone.
Because he lives,
we needn’t fear to be alive.

©Joel Tipple 8/24/2019

Missing

It’s no surprise, Lord,
that men can spend their lifetime in search…
of what?
they do not know.
Without a relationship
with the one true God
they start out with a deadly blow.

You are the center.
You are the creator.
Without You to follow
my voice would ring hollow.
The sound would fall lifeless
to the floor.

It should go without saying
that man would be done for
if he tried to replace the author
of the universe.

© Joel Tipple
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