Wonder and Awe…

Place: My Office 

Poison: Long Macciato 

Favourite Things: Claudine on the phone 

Do you live your everyday with a sense of expectation and thankfulness for the good in the world? Or with a cynical heart that sees all the brokenness and carries the baggage of past hurts? 

I am the world’s biggest Christmas groupie! 

I love the food, the family stuff, the presents and the smells, basically the whole package! 

One traditional picture that is created at Christmas ‘The Three Wise Men’ is one of my favourites. The gospel of Matthew describes them as scholars, they are obviously very important, special, men of wisdom yet they humbly make a massive effort to walk to this random shed out in the middle of no where, carrying expensive gifts of frankincense and myrrh, yet the scripture says that they were filled with a sense of wonder and awe. 

The message version of the bible says that ‘they could hardly contain themselves.’ These were our equivalent of fortune 500, business men, who humbled themselves and had wonder and awe, as they travelled towards a new born baby. 

In the natural, a smelly, animal infested stable, a baby, a mother and father, a long, frustrating walk following a star, which I am sure hid from them often. In the spiritual, the birth of a king, so purposed that this infant was to change the course of eternity, three grown, and men full of wisdom humbled themselves in wonder and awe. 

Just the Sunday night gone I was reminded how I was when I first came to Riverview, I was chatting with a lady after the service, and she was telling me how she normally goes to the Catholic Church and how this week she knew she just had to come to Riverview. She said she ran over to her neighbour’s house, because he comes to Riverview, and said take me to your church tonight. She was in awe of what was happening here at Riverview and was so inspired, she was breath taken in wonder, and was so refreshed by church being done differently! 

For us at Riverview Church, a random warehouse in Burswood, Perth Western Australia, a company of people who come together all with our brokenness, ability to hurt, our baggage, people who sit in your seat, people who play the wrong chords, people who break things, maybe who do not encourage you after you’ve given your heart out to serve. 

In the spiritual, a heavenly transaction which is so full of purpose, where hearts and lives are changed eternally! That is a picture of wonder and awe… So whatever it is that you have become to familiar with friend, your church, your spouse, your mum and dad, choose to come to them with a sense of wonder and awe. 

When you do this, you realise that God has set purpose right at the very core of those people and the church. And that he is always working to bring everything together for good for those who love and trust him. 

WonderFULL 

A