The Wonder of Bubbles

I remember saying to a friend, “If I could just study the Bible and write all day long, I’d be in hog heaven.” I’m not sure what “hog heaven” means, but you get the idea. I love studying and writing! Then I got a phone call and guess what? Two classes were being added to the curriculum at school:  (1) Bible as in Literature and History, and (2) Creative Writing.  A God thang!

Last year, I took my creative writing class outside to blow bubbles and then write about the experience. If you haven’t seen high school kids playing like little kids, you’re missing something special! To discover and play with the wonder of a child after living in the world of peers and pressure is the simple definition of joy. Freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors were dancing, laughing, hollering, and frolicking with the sheer exuberance of having fun. Fun in high school?  I, for one, couldn’t teach without it!

The kids were overjoyed with the miracle of how something so beautiful can come from something as common as soap. And that inspired them to write and write and write, oblivious to the flies, the ants, and the cows who were also occupying the field where we played. It was a perfect day for our creative writing class all because of soap.

As I watched them that day, God spoke to my heart and I thought, “That’s how we should be with God!”

Each day, he gives us the gift of what seems common and unimportant, yet in his unfathomable greatness, invites us to see more for there is always more when it’s God. In fact, sometimes it’s “immeasurably more than” we can even imagine (Ephesians 3:20 NIV).

How excited God must be when we rouse ourselves out of our daily existence and exclaim and marvel with child-like wonder at the miracle who is God. To discover joy in the soap of our day. The powerful significance of who He is in even in the midst of what might seem like a common life.

The kids were totally absorbed with loving the bubbles, so immersed in the moment that they weren’t even distracted by the fact that they were in school, their least favorite place to be. The last place many of them wanted to be.  Instead, they were mesmerized by the wonder of bubbles in the midst of the reality of their lives.

Oh, to be engrossed in discovering the wonder of God.  To sing and jump and dance and drift and float and waltz with the bubbles. Not just on bubble day, but in every day. That one day, however, will always remind me to look deliberately and listen intently and not miss a thang! To laugh for the joy of being able to laugh and to live for the miracle of being able to live.

My students in AP English class repeatedly ask me, “Mrs. Bader, do we have to analyze? Can’t we just read and enjoy the story?”

Oh, yes, let’s enjoy the story of our lives! Let’s observe and react and draw near and be overwhelmed! Let’s enjoy the wonder! And also remember that just as bubbles can leave a mess, our lives can be messy, too. But God is with us even in the midst of the messy parts. And that, too, is part of the wonder of God.

“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son,

And they will call him Immanuel”–

which means, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23 NIV).