Day Four in "The Journey of the Wise Men: Twelve Days and Twelve Ways to Deepen Your Spiritual Practice" To live with wonder is to live with awe and reverence. Wonder is childlike---wide-eyed and innocent before a mystery bigger than you are. You don't have to be a child to know wonder, but most of us grown-ups no longer know what it's like to stand wide-eyed and awe-struck before a mystery that's beyond us.

Beauty is the surest way back into a sense of wonder. Beauty renders your mind temporarily dumb, your thoughts overwhelmed by splendor. There are no words, no thoughts that can pull into your mind the beauty that's before you.

Prayer needs beauty like your camel needs water. Not frequently. But here and there, a taste of beauty will carry you a long, long way.

On this journey, your prayers often become more like a supply list of things you'll need to pick up at the next town along the way, or like a to-do list for God. That's understandable. But take care to get yourself out of yourself from time to time, and into something much, much bigger. Wide-eyed and innocent again before beauty. There's no better way to infuse your prayers with wonder and a sense of the Divine.

Silent, still, and awe-struck before beauty---now you're speaking the language of God.

Today, beauty will cross my path, but I'll miss it if I'm preoccupied. I must watch for it. And when it comes, I'll stand silent and still, drinking deep of wonder.

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