HOLDING ONTO WONDER...

Just for today

By Christine Jayakaran

June 23^rd, 2025

I have a huge problem with Lego blocks. Once they are built into magnificent albeit uninhabitable structures, I struggle to understand why they can't they be dismantled and stored away. At least that way those rogue pieces don't find their way around the house and under your bare feet.

Yes, I have weird issues like this but it was my children’s response that really irked me. They said they liked to hold on to the finished product and not have to keep rebuilding it. They absolutely refused to break down and reconceptualise something different or remotely better!

So here I am stuck dusting 5 rather big lego creations around their room. While I am all for holding on to things that are working for me, I find that life doesn’t always work that way.

I have realised that I can’t rest forever on yesterday’s victories or challenges.

Each day needs a reboot - a bit of dismantling of attitudes and mindsets that are not helpful and choosing to rebuild a better thought life and stronger character.

Each day has a different shade of glory and gory to be honest. You deal with the best in people and the worst. You see flickers of goodness and traces of evil in the most unlikely places.

If you’re a treasure hunter like me though, you will be on the look out for whispers of wonder in your every day.

I was recently having a particularly rough day when I looked up from my desk only to see my neighbour’s yellow trumpet shaped flower peeping at me through the fence that separated our houses. The way the flower was turned and positioned it looked like it was giving me a personal show of its beauty and poise! I just put down my pen and spent the next 10 minutes staring at this impertinent yet adorable reminder from God to literally ‘stop and smell the roses’.

I realise now more than ever, after writing a book about the wilderness, that finding The Wonder in each day needs to be a top priority.

This wonder is found in the gift of community too!

Whenever I speak to friends within the church and outside of it I’m amazed at the sweet touch of God in their lives. The delays that birth miracles, the detours that bring new connections, the setbacks that are setups for God to show off - all of it just blows my mind. God is not careless with us, friend!

He is ever so mindful of leaving marks of heaven here on earth everyday so that it fills the part of our love tank that is capable of holding eternity. Your job and mine is to take the time to look for it and find it. And once you find it- relish it, make a note of it and let it go for someone else to catch a glimpse of it.

Don’t hoard it up because wonder loses its charm if its put in storage and taken out again tomorrow. Instead, as you enter every day, keep your eyes peeled to find something wonder-ful.

Yesterday in my garden, I was amazed at the tenacity of a plant that had gotten itself rooted into the side of our house- into solid concrete. As I wiggled it and try to loosen its hold on the building I couldn’t help but be in awe at its solid grip- as unwanted as it was! Today I listened to a friend tell me about the business she is setting up and I could not help but marvel at how God had trained her all these years in the spaces she had worked to finally help her step out on her own!