Wonder

“His name shall be called, Wonder”

Those of us familiar with the Christmas narrative in the Bible know well Isaiah’s prophecies of the coming Messiah, 500 odd years before He graced a manger or a stable. In one of the most beautiful pieces (Isaiah 9: 6), Isaiah declares, “His name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Only, there is actually no word for ‘wonderful’ in Hebrew. So most translations add the ‘full’ to the ‘wonder’. And certainly, we could agree that Jesus is wonderful.

But this passage would more accurately read, “His name shall be called Wonder, Counsellor, Mighty God…”

Wonder is a name of Jesus only visible to those who can come like little children. Children live with eyes wide open in wonder. There is part of wonder only accessible when we recognise we don’t understand everything, or even many things.

Losing wonder is like losing part of what it means to be truly alive. We all need to find wonder.

“Wonder is our natural environment, just as worship is our native tongue.” — Michael Thompson

This Christmas, may we discover His name is Wonder. In the mystery of our unanswered questions and the twilight of our disappointments, Wonder rises. May we learn to treasure Wonder, just as Mary did on Christmas night, surrounded by perplexing visitors and challenging circumstances, but with the Word of God echoing within.

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I am grateful for the understanding of this Hebrew phrase and many of the ideas in this piece, from guest speaker Michael Thompson at Bethel church earlier this year. I’d encourage you to watch his powerful message, ‘Guard Wonder’ from Sunday morning 23 January 2022, available on Bethel.tv