Catching Wonder

 

Catching Wonder

For me it started on those summer nights that followed hot and humid summer days.  It was too hot to go in the house even when the sun had set over an hour ago.  Even my parents were positioned in the front yard seated on their folding lawn chairs that dad had dug out of the camping gear earlier in the evening.  Most of the neighbors were also out on their front lawns.

Almost as soon as darkness settled in earnest we saw the first one.  A strange, almost eerie speck suddenly glowed bright green for a second or two and then went out.  “There it is again!” my brother Mike exclaimed as he pointed about ten feet to the left of where we had first seen it.  We both raced towards it, but before we got halfway to it, the light was extinguished.  “There’s another one over by the maple tree!”  We changed our direction.  The little green light went back out before we could get there again, but this time I felt something land on my arm.  The green light lit up on my right arm.  I cupped my left hand and quickly covered it.  I lifted my hand just a bit – the green light was there.

This is where we ran back over to my parents.  I lifted my hand just enough that that could also see the strange little light glowing.  “Can we have a jar?”  My mother got up and went into the kitchen cupboard to get a Mason jar and lid.  We stuffed handfuls of grass in it, and added a small twig for a perch – at least that was our thinking. 

We spent the next hour running this way and that chasing fire flies; we also called them lightening bugs.  No summer was complete without us being able to end the chase by sitting on the front porch steps admiring the twenty or so little blinking lights that we had managed to catch and add to the jar.  Mike and I passed the jar back and forth so we could each hold it right up to our eyes.  The ability of the little bugs to light up their tails was a wonder.  Even my parents took the jar and held it up face level for a moment before they smiled, gave us back the jar, and went inside.   

The little bugs and Mike and I learned the hard way that wonder and captivity do not go well together.  We added the grass because we had no idea what the bugs ate.  We learned from previous years that if you left the jar empty, all of the fire flies would be dead in the morning.  We learned this time, that handfuls of grass wasn’t the answer either.  So, in the few following years that we still chased fire flies, we still caught them and collected them in our jar, but after we were finished chasing and wondering, we set them all free.

Fire flies.  What a marvelous and surprising way for God to get our attention to the wonder of Creation.  Children are instantly excited.  Adults smile.  They teach us that wonder can be experienced, but it cannot be possessed. 

“O LORD, our Lord, how awesome is your name through all the earth!” Psalm 8:10

His Peace <><

Deacon Dan      

Photo by Allison Oliphant on Unsplash