Wonder! Galaxies & GK Chesterton

Image: Dead Star Creates Celestial Havoc
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A friend gave me a book on his intellectual hero, GK Chesterton. I know his poems, but he's like the author and thinker I was waiting to discover! The first chapter I flipped to was titled "Wonder," my favourite concept!

Chesterton, a larger-than-life London journalist who wrote memorably in the early 20th century, said of wonder:

"The function of imagination is... not so much to make wonders facts as to make facts wonders."

"A child of seven is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door and saw a dragon. But a child of five is excited by bein told that Tommy opened a door."

My high-spirited unstoppable nephew Caleb is five. The world is new and wondrous to him, even the littlest things. This early waker popped into my room one morning. I told him my new alarm clock would chime soon. A ho-hum everyday moment? Caleb's eyes widened and his mouth formed a surprised O in the half-light when the tinkling tune began.

One of my best Bible Studies highlighted Jacob and his dream of the stairway to Heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it. (Genesis 28:10-15). It didn't matter that his pillow was a rock and he was a fugitive. Wonder can still be our experience in woeful circumstances. We're alive to possibilities!

In my life, God embedded a special wonder when I was five or six. I was lying on the grass on Fort Canning Hill and suddenly I became aware of stars and infinity in the early evening sky. The Creator of the galaxies is also an intimate God who pursues us in love. We and the cosmos fall down in worship before God.

We're Transients

My prayer circle was commenting that several of us are now seeking direction. So is our little church as a whole.

The key is to be ready and available before God, Patrick said, even when we can't answer a lot of questions rationally.

I know how awkward it is to be in transition. But then our days in this world will never be fully comfortable because Heaven is our home, Beverly added. Get used to living outside comfort zones!

I often think about Hebrews 11:13 which makes it clear that we're "aliens and strangers on earth." Other translations pile on the meanings: foreigners, nomads, exiles, pilgrims, temporary residents and transients.

Transients! There it is. It also suggests how brief our earthly lives are... vapours, fleeting shadows and all. And how momentary our troubles are.

Meanwhile, like King David we can live to the utmost while waiting for God's perfect timing to play out. When David was a very young man, it was prophesized that he'd be Israel's king. It was many years before that happened, and in the meantime he'd alternate between working for Saul in the city and being a shepherd. It was an active, productive time of waiting and preparation, and he lived life fully.

Fidelis had lots to say. He's a young man from Ghana, and really discerning and on fire in his unassuming style. Relax and don't rush into the future, he said. There were times when he got a headache trying to get friends to help him reach the goal God set before him. God doesn't need our help! When He opens the door, things happen very quickly, he said. And it'll be better than we ever imagine "even if our lives are ruined!!"

As an example, he said that with his rational mind, he'd chosen to migrate to the United Kingdom cos that's where his sibling resided. But then the door to America was flung open. When he boarded the plane in Ghana, he was ushered into First Class though he was abashed and there were people far better-dressed than him.

Things like this keep happening to him. It's like he passes close to God's white-hot presence. I should blog a couple of his testimonies.

No More Worlds To Conquer

I read this mini-profile of Payton Jordan at the San Francisco Airport, en route from Singapore to Washington, DC. His story stirred me from my sleep-deprived state, and his life is one window into:

• America's competitive spirit — a national strength
• The incomparable sense of possibilities — one compelling reason why I admire my host-country of 10-plus years

Payton Jordan

He coached track and field at Stanford from 1957 through 1979, his athletes winning six individual NCAA titles and setting five world records. He was the head coach of the 1968 U.S. Olympic team that won a record 24 medals, including 12 Golds, and established six world records. He was also the director of the historic U.S. vs. U.S.S.R. meet at Stanford Stadium in 1962.

Then, when well past 50, he resurrected his own career as a champion sprinter, setting "Masters" world records in the 100 meters for every age group from 55 through 80. He finally retired at age 81 with no more worlds to conquer.

Inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.

April 19 Update:
Important to remember the best of America and men like Payton Jordan, amid the carnage, grief and questions surrounding Virginia Tech. The students rallied together overnight and showed amazing spirit.

Charismatic Megafauna

I learned a new word today: Charismatic Megafauna. A ranger in wildest Alaska applied this word to the bears that have magnetized travellers everywhere.

Charismatic megafauna include giant pandas, African bush elephants and Great White Sharks. In protecting these awesome creatures, smaller endangered species in their eco-systems are also saved.

The word captures my imagination. It also conjures up half-mystical megafauna, like the mammoth or giant squid.

My favourite megafauna is the lion, with its majesty, mystery and Narnia aura.

I love the imagery and vibrant Edenic promise of Isaiah 11:6: The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

The Chocolate Factory

Thanks, Sue, for introducing me to The Chocolate Factory when I visited Singapore!

One bite of Laurent Bernard's chocolate tart and it was clear he's gifted. One sip of the hot chocolate and my sister and I were transported to Paris.

We'd loved the hot chocolate (thick, indulgent, intense) and Mont Blanc (pastry of chesnut puree on meringue) from Angelina, a Parisienne-Viennese belle epoque cafe that we popped into after a morning at the Louvre and a summer picnic on its grounds. Perfection!

Create memories, PD reminded us today. My chocolate memories flow from the enjoyment of life and wonderful people.

Cloud Prints

There's a "cloudiness" in recent days when I think about the months ahead. A kind of unknowing that clouds the all-Singaporean inner planner in me. But then I read Oswald Chambers, who says: "The clouds are but the dust of the Father's feet. The clouds are a sign that He is there." How uplifting! It's all about His presence!

Matthew 24:30: They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.

Cherry Blossoms in Washington

I missed Washington's cherry blossoms for the first time! Today, after returning from Singapore, I did spy several cherry trees near my house. But they were in the awkward flower-and-leaf stage and totally past their wondrous early-spring peak.

Life-transitions are like that: unbeautiful, but hiding a new day. Hopefully, our transitions are as ephemeral as those pink and white blossoms too!

During my first spring here in 1997, I wasn't going to view the blossoms. Too sweet, I imagined. Until I spent a gorgeous mid-afternoon strolling through Bethesda's affluent Kenwood neighbourhood where 1,200 Yoshino trees were in full bloom.

I joined the invasion of gawkers on the pretty streets, all of us floating slowly, it seemed, under the millions of dreamy petals held aloft on old, dark, gnarled branches.

This was where American suburbia encountered Japan too. American children set up stalls to sell home-made brownies and icy drinks.

I remember buying lemonade from a little boy whose house was far from the hubbub. His hopeful eyes had followed me as I walked up the road; that was how I made my modest 25-cent contribution to a future entrepreneur, one of America's best products.

I love the story of how in 1912, Tokyo presented Washington with 3,700 cherry trees that soon encircled the star-shaped Tidal Basin, signifying friendship.

Once, a Japanese journalist told me he much preferred Washington's sakura season. In Japan, there were karaoke and drinking contests under the trees and it gets crazier every year, he lamented.

That afternoon in Kenwood has stayed with me - the tender colours, the spark and energy of early springtime, and another Asian echo in America.