November 17, 2020
Dear Friends,
Lark, my six-year-old, recently shared a tidbit with me from a book she was reading. “Mom, guess what. Beavers have transparent eyelids that function as goggles for swimming underwater!”
I dropped what I was doing, and we spent a couple minutes marveling together at this amazing animal. It was a sweet moment of togetherness, of role-reversal with the child teaching the parent, of genuine excitement at learning something new and unexpected.
It was also, I believe, a moment of actual prayer.
Wow, God, what a wonderful world You’ve made.
I love Anne Lamott’s words on wonder in her little book Help Thanks Wow: Three Essential Prayers: “Wonder takes our breath away, and makes room for new breath. That’s why they call it breathtaking.”
I think maybe “wow” prayers are something to lean into to combat the mid-pandemic tedium, the “Groundhog Day” slog. Stay awake to the gifts of God’s good world, and the presence of God all around us.
If you have a minute, take a look at this fantastic video posted below of people experiencing wonder. Can you hear their reactions—oh my God, wow!—as an instinctive prayer?
Blessings,
Lindley Traynor
