Never Lose The Wonder

Imagine walking into an old, amazing building built 1,500 years ago. The ceiling is covered in mosaics—tiny pieces of colored glass that form a starry sky. At the center is Jesus, the Good Shepherd, surrounded by sheep in a beautiful, green paradise. Sounds incredible, right?

But here’s the catch: when you first walk in, it’s mostly dark. The windows are tiny, the light barely gets through, and the crowd around you blocks even more. The beauty is hidden. You can sense it’s there, but you can’t see it.

Then, if you drop a coin in a small box, suddenly—bam! Spotlights hit the ceiling for just a few seconds. The stars shimmer. Jesus and the sheep come alive. The beauty you could barely imagine is right there, and for a moment, it takes your breath away. Then the lights go out again. And again. Every glimpse shows you something new, and you start longing for more.

That’s a lot like faith. We come to God expecting amazing things. We’ve heard stories of His love, His power, His goodness. But when we actually start following Him, life can feel dark. Hard things happen. We don’t see God the way we thought we would. And some people leave, thinking Christianity doesn’t work.  They get weary.  The lose the wonder.

But here’s the thing: the beauty was there all along. It was just hidden behind shadows and the invitation was always there, to drop the coin and see God.

We have to be people that drop the coin – every day.  To be people that have the wonder of who God is and because of that reorientate their life around His rhythms of grace.

Wonder fuels perspective:

When we see God as He is — majestic, holy, loving, and present — our problems shrink in comparison. Weariness doesn’t disappear, but it becomes lighter because our eyes are fixed on the Source, not the storm.

Waging the War on Weariness

Matthew 11:28-30 MSG

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

If you ask someone how they are what are the top 2 responses

Fine

Busy

Follow The Cloud, Not The Crowd

One of the things that I love about that Bible is about how human it is.  Which I think lends credibility to its authenticity.  Look if I was writing a book about my God and the history with His people I would want only the highlight reel and the heroes.  But on almost every page of the Bible we have human beings like you and me, ordinary people doing dumb stuff, making dumb decisions, forgetting who God is, following their heart, and making God look bad.   It gives me hope.  That on every day of my week, on my best days when I’m nailing it or my worst days when I’m messing up, I’m part of God’s people and part of His big story of the redemption and restoration of the world He created and reigns over.

We’re going to look back through into the lives of the Israelites in the wilderness at how they dealt with a problem that echoes its way loudly into our modern lives and the way that we reorientate our lives towards Jesus, as people that are called to be with Jesus, become like Jesus and do the things that Jesus did.

So grab your bibles – and turn to numbers 9.  Give me a wave if you’re at Numbers 9 – wave me your phone if you’re in the bible app at numbers 9 as well!

So lets look at Numbers 9:15-23 together:

 On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. And at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. ¹⁶ So it was always: the cloud covered it by dayand the appearance of fire by night. 

¹⁷ And whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out, and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel camped. ¹⁸ At the command of the Lord the people of Israel set out, and at the command of the Lord they camped. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. 

¹⁹ Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle many days, the people of Israel kept the charge of the Lord and did not set out. ²⁰ Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the Lord they remained in camp; then according to the command of the Lord they set out. ²¹ And sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning. And when the cloud lifted in the morning, they set out, or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud lifted they set out. 

²² Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out, but when it lifted they set out. At the command of the Lord they camped, and at the command of the Lord they set out.

So this is cool right?  God’s physical literal visible presence that led the people of Israel from campsite to campsite.  The ultimate GPS.  A cloud by day, a fire by night.  Wow. 

I don’t know about you but sometimes I’m like hey God, show me your way, none of this lamp unto my feet thing, I want it cloud of fire version please…. 

At camp Tony and I had a cabin waaaay down the back and well, for those that know me, know that I cant see in the dark.  Like literally.  I probably should get that tested.  But yean, I cant see in the dark so there I am 11 oclock at night with my phone torch, in the rain, trying to find my way to our cabin without falling down some ditch.  And then boom.   Here comes ryan with his mega extreme torch that im sure you could see here in Auckland all the way from Hamilton, its that bright!  I want the ryans torch version of God’s light leading me!

But back to Numbers.  Turn the page or swipe to Numbers 10.

Numbers 10 is what happens when the cloud moves – the camp packs up and moves into formation to move to the next area that the cloud will show them.  Fun fact – that they travel and orientate themselves around the temple in the shape of … a cross.  Huge easter egg!

Keep this in mind.  Literal pillar of cloud by day, literal pillar of fire by night.

Imagine my shock and horror when we get to chapter 11. 

Doing the hard math here – 2 chapters on from chapter 9, which is the description of this mighty visible tangible amazing presence of God leading their camp – we have chapter 11.

It’s just a one page turn!

Numbers 11: 1 And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes…. Skip down to verse 4 for the sake of time

⁴ Now the crowd that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! ⁵ We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. ⁶ But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

Cloud of fire, I wanna cucumber. 

I got whiplash just reading that. 

Today – our challenge is – are we going to be people that follow the CLOUD – not the CROWD.

Drop The Coin

Imagine walking into an old, amazing building built 1,500 years ago. The ceiling is covered in mosaics—tiny pieces of coloured glass that form a starry sky. At the centre is Jesus, the Good Shepherd, surrounded by sheep in a beautiful, green paradise. Sounds incredible, right?

But here’s the catch: when you first walk in, it’s mostly dark. The windows are tiny, the light barely gets through, and the crowd around you blocks even more. The beauty is hidden. You can sense it’s there, but you can’t see it.

Then, if you drop a coin in a small box, suddenly—bam! Spotlights hit the ceiling for just a few seconds. The stars shimmer. Jesus and the sheep come alive. The beauty you could barely imagine is right there, and for a moment, it takes your breath away. Then the lights go out again. And again. Every glimpse shows you something new, and you start longing for more.

That’s a lot like faith. We come to God expecting amazing things. We’ve heard stories of His love, His power, His goodness. But when we actually start following Him, life can feel dark. Hard things happen. We don’t see God the way we thought we would.

On the flip side too, we give our lives to Jesus and don’t then let Jesus actually have our lives and our attention and our transformation and we don’t drop the coin and do anything to actually know God and see God.  And so some people leave, thinking Christianity doesn’t work and that God’s not there.

But here’s the thing: the beauty was there all along. It was just hidden behind shadows and behind that choice to drop the coin.

How do we drop the coin?  How do we know God?