Week 2, Day 6: The Mysteries of God

¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Luke 2:15-20

I was talking with my 7th graders the other day about how readily available information is. We were studying the Renaissance and discussing how scholars like Petrarch would collect and preserve classic writings from the Greek and Roman empires. This collection of writings sparked Italian Renaissance Humanism and rekindled the love of knowledge for many Europeans. This was a difficult idea for a 7th grader. We live in a world where most knowledge is readily available. A Kindle has instant access to over 100,000 books. Google Scholar can be used to track the changing usage of semi-colons throughout history. We all use Google on a daily basis to find out things we don't know! The is very little wonder throughout our days.

I really like the Peterson quote that accompanies today's reading, especially this part:
"Once a year, each Christmas, for a few days a least, we and millions of our neighbors turn aside from our preoccupation with life reduced to biology or economics or psychology and join together in a community of wonder." Can we make it more than a few days?