By David Faust
In the summer of 1933 during the depth of the Great Depression, John Jacob Niles attended an outdoor church meeting in a small town in North Carolina. Niles was a singer and a collector of folklore. A group known as the Morgan family had been leading a revival, but after they camped in the town square and hung their clothes to dry on a Confederate monument, the police declared them a public nuisance and ordered them to leave. The family held one more meeting, hoping to raise enough money to buy gas so they could get out of town.
A girl with tousled blond hair stepped onto a little platform and began to sing. Annie Morgan wore dirty, ragged clothes, but Niles later recalled, “She was beautiful, and in her untutored way, she could sing. She smiled as she sang, smiled rather sadly, and sang only a single line of a song.”
The song’s haunting melody stuck in Niles’ mind. He paid the girl 25 cents to sing it again, and she repeated it eight times altogether, earning a quarter each time. Niles wrote a few notes and left with what he called “three lines of verse, a garbled fragment of melodic material—and a magnificent idea.” Later he composed more lyrics to go with the song’s melody, and that is how the Christmas carol “I Wonder as I Wander” came to be.
When Wonder Wanes
The Creator gave us the capacity for wonder. Albert Einstein wrote, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He . . . who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead—his eyes are closed.”
Did you ever take a child to the zoo? Kids are fascinated with animals. They look forward to Christmas. They open gifts with wide-eyed excitement. But wonder tends to dissipate with time. Adults don’t listen for sleighbells in the snow. We gripe about inflation and traffic congestion at the mall.
As time passes, followers of Christ sometimes become so familiar with God’s gifts that we take them for granted. Our appreciation for his grace wanes. Does your heart still rejoice when a new believer is baptized? When you partake of the Lord’s Supper, are you still astonished to realize “How Jesus, the Savior, did come for to die, For poor on’ry people, like you and like I”?
When is the last time you went outside on a clear night, stared in awe at the moon and stars, and asked, “Lord, since the heavens are the work of your fingers, who am I that you care for me?” (See Psalm 8:3-4.) Are you “filled with awe” like the first-century believers who saw the Lord at work in their midst (Acts 2:43)?
Our Amazing Savior
When Jesus was 12 years old, people already were “amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:47). When he calmed a storm on the Sea of Galilee, his flabbergasted disciples asked, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him” (Luke 8:25).
Who is this? He is the “Wonderful Counselor” (Isaiah 9:6). He is wonderfully wise, powerful, and trustworthy. No matter where we wander in life, let’s keep the wonder alive.
Personal Challenge:
What stirs wonder in your heart? What astonishing facts in nature (or in the Bible, your children or grandchildren, or great music and art) remind you to stand in awe of the Lord?
Author: Christian Standard
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