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FOR the CURIOUS CHRISTIAN, GOD’S GLORY is MANIFEST in a NEVER-ENDING SUPPLY of REVELATIONS

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WONDERSTRUCK
by M AT T W O O D L E Y

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8 TO MORE DELIGHT
OU CAN LEARN so many interesting
things from dead people. For
instance, in September 2016,
The New York Times ran an
obituary titled “Joseph B. Keller,
Mathematician With Whimsical
Curiosity, Dies at 93.” Dr. Keller,
a distinguished math professor
at NYU and Stanford, studied
how shock waves spread from
atomic explosions, what makes
a jogger’s ponytail swing from
side to side rather than bob up
and down (Fig. 1), why teapots
dribble (Fig. 2), and how earth-
worms (but not snakes) wriggle
on glass—among other fascinat-
ing topics.
Personally, I’m not that inter-
ested in joggers’ ponytails or
dribbling teapots, but I was
intrigued by the obit’s portrayal
of Keller’s “whimsical” and even
“restless” curiosity. Keller was
what modern educators would
call a “lifelong learner,” a per-
petual student and quester of
more knowledge. At least in this
sense, he serves as a model for
every Christian. After all, there’s
a reason why followers of Jesus
are called disciples. Disciple sim-
ply means “a learner.” Follow-
ing Jesus is the ultimate learning
T H O U G H T F U L FA I T H . D E V O T E D L I V I N G .
Fig. 1
adventure, a quest that should
provide us with endless curiosity
and spiritual growth throughout
this life and all eternity.
Of course, there is something
unique about the Christian’s
quest. It centers on a relation-
ship with the personal and living
God. As church historian Robert
Louis Wilken wrote, “The goal of
human life is not to know some-
thing about God, but to know
God and be known by God, to
delight in the face of God.” As
the Bible warns, mere learning
or knowledge for its own sake
44
“puffs up” (1 Cor. 8:1 NKJV).
In contrast, an encounter with
THE GLORY OF BEETLES AND
Following Jesus is
Jesus Christ leads to a growing
HUMMINGBIRDS
the ultimate learning
and life-giving love for God and IFELONG LEARNERS also emulate adventure, a quest
others (Matt. 22:35-40). Solomon, who not only prayed
for a discerning heart but also
that should provide
THE DELIGHT THAT LE ADS studied “plant life, from the us with endless curiosity
cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop and spiritual growth 6
8
AS CHRIST-FOCUSED lifelong learn-
that grows out of walls” as well
as “animals and birds, reptiles
throughout this life.
ers, we can first and foremost and fish” (1 Kings 4:33 NIV). and all eternity.
make new discoveries about Like Solomon, we can begin an
the character and mystery of unending quest to know more
God. During my first pastor- about God through creation.
ate, in a tiny town of 460 people also clunky, complicated, and Consider this, for instance: second—which beats the space
in northern Minnesota, I once unrelated to my daily life. Yet Our planet is home to almost 10 shuttle’s impressive dive of 207
dropped in to visit 82-year-old while I read the book, the mys- million living species. There are body lengths per second. Watch-
retired dairy farmer Howard tery and aliveness of the Trinity 30,000 species of orchids (Fig. 3), ing hummingbirds led Sy Mont-
Ballou. Asleep in his favor- snuck up on me and pierced my over 60 species of eagles, and gomery, a naturalist, to declare
PAGES 40-41: PHOTOGRAPH BY LEVON BISS, MICROSCULPTURE.NET; PAGES 42-43: GETTY IMAGES/LONELY PLANET IMAGES; ILLUSTRATIONS BY JEFF GREGORY
ite chair, Ballou had the Bible, heart. In Reeves’ words, “The approximately 350,000 kinds of that each is an “infinite mystery”
open to Leviticus chapter 17, on triune God is the love behind beetles—a fact that inspired sci- that gives us a “connection to
his lap. When he awoke, I asked all love, the life behind all life, entist J. B. S. Haldane to dryly something great and mysteri-
about his Bible reading habits. the music behind all music, the note that God must have “an ous” (like God, maybe?).
Ballou chuckled and said, “Yeah, beauty behind all beauty, and the inordinate fondness for beetles.” Moving from tiny to vast,
you betcha I know the story. I’ve joy behind all joy. In other words, Or learn from tiny humming- astrophysics claims that dark
read it straight through more the triune God is a God we can birds. Their little wings beat energy and dark matter, the
times than I can count. But I heartily enjoy.” At one point I about 60 times per second as stuff in the universe that we
keep reading it because every put the book down, cupped my they hover, dart backward, or can’t quite pin down, compose
time I find something new and head in my hands and told God, even fly upside down. These about 96 percent of the universe.
exciting about God.” “Even after trusting Jesus over miniature God-marvels can What this means is that only 4
Apparently the 6th-century 40 years ago, I am just beginning dive at 385 body lengths per percent of the Continued on pg 46
Christian thinker Gregory the to know You.”
Great knew about a Ballou-like It was a sober and humbling
God-driven curiosity. When we moment. I felt like a begin-
meet God, Gregory said, we never ner—a spiritual baby, even.
“cease yearning for more.” And it But then another thought hit Fig. 2
gets better. He also noted, “Every me: I also have the rest of my
delight in God becomes kindling life and all of eternity to learn
for a still more ardent desire.” more about this God of love
Over the past year I had a sim- behind all love and joy behind
ple experience of this unceas- all joy. No wonder the apostle
ing “yearning for more.” I was Paul could proclaim his driv-
reading a short, accessible book ing passion—“that I may know
titled Delighting in the Trinity, Him”—and his humble confes-
by Michael Reeves. For me, the sion—“not that I have already
Trinity had been a theoretical obtained it … but I press on”—in
concept on par with my car’s a single breath (Phil. 3:10, 12).
engine block. Certainly, I believe That should be a model prayer
it exists and is important, but it’s for every Christian.
45 INTOUCH.ORG

universe is visible, while the
remaining 96 percent is hidden
from us. Thus everything we call
“scientific knowledge” is really
based on a trifle of what there is
to know. And yet the Bible says
that “by [Christ] all things were
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8 created, both in the heavens and
on earth, visible and invisible”
(Col. 1:16). The 4 percent we can
see and the 96 percent beyond
our understanding—all of it
belongs to Jesus Christ.
As the poet Gerard Manley
Hopkins observed, “The world
is charged with the grandeur of
God / It will flame out, like shin-
ing from shook foil.” And despite
our efforts to deface and degrade
God’s good creation, we can still
learn about His “power and
divine nature … through what
Fig. 3
T H O U G H T F U L FA I T H . D E V O T E D L I V I N G .
W
has been made” (Rom. 1:20). I
would imagine I still have over 9
million more species to explore,
not to mention forests, stars,
mountain ranges, oceans, and
the beetles and sugar maples
in my backyard—all of which
declare something about the
glory of God.
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LESSONS FROM THE
TRUE IMAGE BEARERS
HEN IT COMES to lifelong learning,
it’s appropriate to start with the
God revealed in Scripture and
in His own creation, but let’s
not skip over the summit of His
creative genius—a human being
made in His image.
Each person before you this
day or the next day—your
spouse, your best friend, that
strange guy at church with tears
in his eyes who practically bowls
you over to get out the door, the
woman who cuts your deli meat
behind the glass counter, the
Muslim refugee family who just
arrived from Somalia, the friend
who harbors hostility against
what she calls our “sky daddy”
Christian God—each one is fear-
fully and wonderfully made. And
because they are unique image
bearers of the living God, every
person you meet will have some-
thing to teach you about creativ-
ity and goodness, but also sin,
brokenness, and our longing for
(or perhaps thwarting of) God’s
grace in Jesus.
This thought hit me as my
friend George shared his journey
to Christ. We were sitting with a
few other men in a dingy church
basement, listening to George’s
sordid descent into sin and its
wreckage. After countless esca-
pades in immorality, he hit bot-
tom. His life unraveled, he lost
his job, his family disowned him,
and now his wife was leaving
him. But then like the Prodigal
Son, George finally had a “come
to his senses” moment. As a
newcomer in the Father’s house,
George had good news to tell.
With hands shaking, he unrolled
a scrap of paper and asked if he
could teach us a “new poem.” “It’s
one of the most beautiful things
I’ve ever read,” George said. “I
just discovered it. It goes like
this: ‘Amazing grace, how sweet
the sound, that saved a wretch
like me; I once was lost but now
am found, was blind but now I
see.’” As tears of joy streamed
down his face, I realized that the
familiar story of God’s grace had
become stale and dull to me. It
was no longer new and “amaz-
ing.” On that day, baby Christian
George became my mentor in the
theology of grace.
And so it is for any follower of
Jesus. If we stay open and humble
and expectant, almost any ragged
image bearer of the living God can
be our teacher and professor in
the lifelong learning classroom.
THE CHILD OR THE FOOL
down to this:
T R E A L LY C O M ES
Will I approach life as a fool or
a child? Biblically, the fool does
not have low intelligence; he
has just stopped learning. You
can’t really teach him anything,
because he’s convinced that at
If we stay open and
humble and expectant,
almost any ragged
image bearer of the
living God can be our
teacher in the lifelong
learning classroom.
some point in the distant past,
he graduated from growing in
Jesus, he completed the course,
and he’s got his spiritual Ph.D.
to prove it. He might need a
refresher class—nah, actually,
he’s moved past that as well.
The child knows better.
Scholars debate exactly what
Jesus meant when He said we
should become like little chil-
dren (Matt. 18:2-3), but there’s
one thing we all know about
children: They aren’t grownups.
They are becoming grownups but
aren’t there yet—and they know
it. Every day, life is an exciting
learning lab. Like the apostle
Paul, the child keeps saying, “Not
that I have already obtained it …
but I press on” (Phil. 3:12). And
similar to the psalmist’s descrip-
tion of the righteous, children
are like palm trees planted in the
house of the Lord, that keep flour-
ishing even into old age, bearing
fruit as they stay fresh and green
and open and teachable.
I’m intrigued by the psalm-
ist’s constant-growth approach
to life because I will turn 60 in
a few years—not exactly “old
age” but getting there. So I’m
starting to wonder about this
question: How will my children
and grandchildren describe me
when they write my obituary?
Although they won’t mention
studies about ponytails and tea-
pots, I hope that, like Dr. Keller’s,
my obit will allude to something
about my whimsical, restless,
or lifelong curiosity—not just
about random ideas, but about
the marvels of God and people
made in His image. “You know,”
I hope they’ll say, “In one sense
he was like a kid: He just never
stopped learning.”
47 INTOUCH.ORG
TEN WAYS TO KEEP
LEARNING WITH CHRIST
Study one subject that you

know nothing about—the
history of denim, the short
stories of Anton Chekov,
professional paintball, monarch
butterflies, the Soviet Gulags.
There are over 10,000 distinct
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people groups in the world and
195 countries. Study one of
them. See what God is doing
to reach one of them.
Listen to people talk about their

profession. What do they do?
What do they like about it?
Listen to people talk about their

hobby. What do they do? What
do they like about it?
Get outside. Notice God’s good

creation. Walk in it. Breathe it
in. Study it. Be amazed.
If your kids are studying a

particular subject, study it with
them. That’s how I learned
about the Underground
Railroad, hip-hop music, metal
manufacturing in Shanghai,
and medical missions in Papua
New Guinea.
Listen to people’s spiritual

journeys—even if they don’t
believe in Christ. What’s the
story behind what they
believe?
Read one good book on

Christian theology or
Christian history.
Study one book of the Bible.

To make all of this possible, set

times to turn off your TV,
 computer, and cellphone.