Wonder is a difficult state to maintain or even recapture. The reason becomes clear when you read the definition.

wonder: a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable

When a wonderful story like the birth of Jesus is repeated over and over again, the wonder usually fades into familiarity. Our task, only possible with the help of the Holy Spirit, is to bring fresh eyes to the incarnation.

The goal of being ​“re-wondered” with the incarnation isn’t to recapture an emotional high for its own sake, trying as it were ​“to make every kiss feel like the first” — though wonder by definition does involve emotion (a feeling of surprise). The goal is worship, which is the natural response of a heart when it recognizes God’s immense worth.

Flashing to mind now are images of Innocent Smith, the protagonist in Chesterton’s novel Manalive. In the story, Smith does outrageous things ​“to remind himself, by every electric shock to the intellect, that he is still a man alive, walking on two legs about the world.”

Innocent would, for example, surprise his wife with elaborate proposals to ask her to marry him again. ​”He seriously sought by a perpetual recapture of his bride to keep alive the sense of her perpetual value, and the perils that should be run for her sake.”

So, Father, may we be like Innocent Smith. Help us to keep alive the sense of your value and to discover new facets of the infinite diamond called Incarnation. We don’t want knowledge that puffs up, we want Spirit-given illumination that brings us to our knees in wonder of Jesus.

We hope the Advent resources below might play a little part in answering that prayer.