The Power of "Wow"

Two weeks ago I was walking with the faculty, staff and principal of our local elementary school during a day long retreat. I got to thinking how life giving it can be to give myself to a quiet space. In that space I get to marvel, at least for fleeting moments, at all kinds of nature-things that surround me. It’s during those times that I hear myself saying, “Wow, I never saw that before.” And almost simultaneously I notice I’m either smiling or giggling softly. The more often I hear myself say “wow”, the more readily it comes to my lips.
It made me think of the time I was sitting in our oratory praying noon prayer next to a sister whose first language was German. We came to line in the psalm that says, “God gives to the vower a vow”. And those of you who know German know the “v’ is pronounced like a “w” in English. So what my pew-mate said was, “God gives to the wower a wow”. I immediately thought, well of course, that’s it, every “vow” is really a “wow”. It makes me wonder, if we are willing to be “wowers”, how many “wows” God will give us in a day.