Shaving foam isn’t a common gift at Christmas for a young girl. However, this year, at our home, one little girl was delighted to receive some for Christmas. She had specially requested it – an essential ingredient in the latest recipe to make slime. ‘Why is slime so special?’ I asked. ‘It’s wonderful, interesting and sticky to make,’ was the reply.
On Christmas afternoon some slime was made and some of the adults discussed its plasticity and its elasticity. A simple object led to wonder and reflection.
Have a look at this image. What do you see? Perhaps a remote landscape? Not quite!
Many years ago after graduating in Metallurgy I studied metal fatigue in iron. The image shows a fatigue fracture surface very highly magnified by the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Such microscopic images still fill me with wonder at the complexity, and order, found in materials. Who cannot but be amazed at such extraordinary things within commonplace objects.
An unusual Christmas card arrived at our home. Have a look at the image on it. The card came from the Medical Research Foundation. It is, in fact, another SEM image. This time the fascinating image is of human stem cells. Stem cells possess the extraordinary ability to produce almost any type of cell in the body making them an immensely important tool fin medical research especially for drug discovery and cell based therapies.
Objects around us looked at very closely, even microscopically, can fill us with wonder and awe.
It’s good to look, to pause, to wonder and to allow our wonder to change us.
In it’s #FollowTheStar initiative the Church of England is inviting people to think about words from the chorus of the popular Christmas carol We Three Kings of Orient Are. One of the words is WONDER – star of wonder.
The wise men look at the new star with amazement. In the midst of spectacular creation something new, something different, invited them to look with awe and wonder.
A question for today: What amazes you in creation?
Ian
St Chrysostom's Church News and Views 