Distance: 24.9 km, Intermediate
Sometimes the spiritual life can feel like work. As we said at the start of this retreat, the Camino is spiritual exercise. Work however does not preclude Wonder.
Truly, if we are doing our spiritual work we find in ourselves an awakened sense of wonder. We discover that we don’t know everything, we can’t do everything, and we aren’t in charge (spiritually speaking) of anything. God is in control and, as the Camino instructs us time and again, we walk with God.
Wonder and awe are critical to walking with God. The One who created us made us to marvel at creation, to tend to it, and to, ultimately, find the signs of our Creator in it. Just think for a second at the mystery of our being… You are here right now, living a life only you can live and seeing the world as only you can see it. How amazing is that??
And then think about the miracle of the journey you are on—that God has been with you every step of the way. Every day might not feel like a marvel, but taken as a whole there’s something gracious and marvelous about it all.
Jesus invites us to greet each day with such awe… to become like children- innocent and free… to take on the wonder of a child in cherishing the small things, in seeing the grace of God that shines all around us.
Take to heart these two translations of Matthew 18:3:
“Jesus said, ‘What I’m about to tell you is true. You need to change and become like little children. If you don’t, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’” (NIRV)
“For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, ‘I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me.’” (Message Bible)
So, as we journey today on our Camino in everyday life, what would it mean to see with the eyes of a child? To stand in awe and see with wonder?
Take the word of Jesus above to prayer and also reflect on the word of the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart below. How do they invite you to look at your day, your walk, your journey, your life with awe and wonder? What shines forth when you put on eyes of wonder?
Shining Forth
(From Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart: Meditations for the Restless Soul by Jon M. Sweeney & Mark S. Burrows.)
In times of doubt I forget
that You are not a God
of thoughts, to be found
in concepts or theories
but are the source of
my life and the radiance
that shines forth in all
that is, and then I remember:
mine is the work of learning
to see You as the radiance
that shines forth in all that is,
even in the dark. Even in me.