Anyone who ever watches a young child will recognize the overwhelming sense of exploration they instinctively possess. The strong desire to discover, examine, and learn about the unfamiliar or unknown is easily noticed as they move from place to place. It is this yearning which causes a child to grow in wisdom and understanding. It is a gift of wonder. Without it, one has to consider what life would be like. What would inspire or initiate discovery?
Francis Bacon is known for his famous quote of, “Wonder is the seed of knowledge.” A seed is the beginning of growth. To gain wisdom and understanding, a person needs to question; to wonder. Only with wondering about life, about self, about the Divine, can a person begin to grow. The wonder craves to be nurtured by each person so knowledge will sprout. As it expands, so does the awareness of the immense greatness to be found within the world.
We should all make every effort to stay like young children with their active questioning and searching. To stop the wonder, is to stop the growth. It takes work and determination. In the Lost Keys of Freemasonry by Manly P. Hall, he states, “The world is a school. We are here to learn, and our presence here proves our need of instruction.” Our continuous wonder will lead us to a path of instruction.
By wonder, we experience, and with experience, we learn. We will find the path if we keep the active wonder. We will come out of the darkness and begin to see light. Proverbs 4 begins by saying, “Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction.” As a person listens, he will hear within in his heart the Divine’s instructions. Later, in Proverbs 4, it says, “Hold on to instruction, do not let it go” and 4:18 shares, “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn.” The light shines brighter as the path of instruction is recognized and found.
Hall also calls the world a prison with bars unknown. Each person struggles to grow and reach or stretch beyond the limitations placed upon the self. Like a seed first sprouting, a person will extend upward ever so slowly as the roots of learning and knowledge are gained. With wonder as the seed of knowledge, a tree, full of life, will grow.
One of the greatest gifts given to each person is the strong instinctive sense of wonder. The wonder and then search for answers is what gives a person self knowledge. The gift is wonder. The gift is the wanting, yearning, craving, desire, or need to know for ourselves and the world around us. Knowing or exploring this life is the most precious and ‘wonder’ full wisdom a person can learn. It is not merely given; it must be found and so it is earned. It is a return on investment in wonder.
