In the past two months, I’ve watched Fiona hone her five senses and learn to assimilate the sights, smells, sounds, tastes and textures she experiences. Now with the ability to walk, it’s as if she’s been set loose in an entirely new world. She is quite literally an explorer on a new planet and is enjoying the thrill of discovery.

A couple of our shared adventures last week brought this into sharper relief.

Early in the week, we went to the zoo. We strolled by a snowy leopard. It took Fiona a minute to spot him in the grass, but once she did, she poked out her index finger into a crooked point, looked at me and smiled. We passed by the monkeys and gibbons and the elephants. She ignored the animals and craned her neck to see the other kids looking on, and squatted down to touch the groundcover plants. We stopped into a children’s garden, and she gleefully climbed in and out of oversized dinosaur eggs and tottered across a footbridge, stooping down to stroke the leaves on the miniature plants. We ended our outing at the giraffes. A couple of the giraffes were at play, cantering back and forth across their small habitat. Fiona squealed loudly and bounced up and down in my arms. It was enough to make me giggle with delight.

On another day, we simply enjoyed a little extra time outside, in our own backyard. We picked strawberries and cherry tomatoes from our little garden. Fiona smashed a strawberry and a tomato and licked her fingers. Then she was off to see the flowers, examining the silky, purple petals of an agapanthus, feeling the fuzzy top of a dandelion. She put her nose into the flowers and tried to sniff, as I’d recently taught her to do. She found a snail shell, picked it up, examined it and carried it with her. She added a couple smooth stones and a berry to her collection, kept them all clasped in her small hands, stopping occasionally to admire her treasures. Eventually, she cast her gaze upward and pointed towards the towering coastal oaks ahead of her, or a bird flying by—I’m not sure which. She gave a little gasp and trotted through the grass, wide-eyed.

It didn’t matter whether she was seeing exotic animals at the zoo, or discovering the textures and sights just outside our door. She was filled with childlike wonder.

I too am beginning to rediscover what it means to be filled with wonder. Spending hours exploring with a toddler is helping me to see God’s creation with new eyes, to take time to note its splendor and intricacy. And in the late evening hours, just before bed, when I tiptoe in to check on Fiona, and gaze at her sleeping, I am also filled with wonder and delight, to see what God has done in forming her.

I want to experience the wonder of the Psalmist, as he broke out into song before the Lord:

“O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” (Psalm 104:24)

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8: 3-4)

So often I have lost my sense of awe and delight before not only an artistic, all-powerful Creator, but before a holy, righteous God, who in mercy and love has made a way for us to know Him.

During the past week, my husband and I have spent time together reflecting on and praying Psalm 19. The Psalmist observes the day sky and ponders how God has silently revealed Himself throughout the earth to all peoples, in all places, simply through the majesty of His creation. However, the Psalmist then turns to consider the delight we have in God’s law, in His Word, which gives us a level of intimate knowledge of God we otherwise could never have and which tells us how to find lasting joy in Him.

I pray that Fiona one day also will understand and love God’s law. And I am thankful that God is using the wonder of the child to enliven my sometimes dreary heart and renew my delight not only in all He has made, but in His Word.

I pray that you too will be filled with wonder as you walk with Him this week.