I took this picture a few days ago. It captures the exact moment you realized that those two strange objects that have been floating around in your peripheral vision actually belong to you. You control them. They’re yours. They’re called hands, and they are attached to arms (those are yours, too).

The picture shows the shock in your face. “Oh. My. Goodness. I’ve been wondering who those things belonged to!”

I love moments like this when you notice patterns in your little world. Whether figuring out that your hands are under your control, or realizing that shaking your toy stuffed bird makes a rattling noise, or recognizing that the sound of rushing water means you’re about to get a bath, all these little discoveries are beautiful to me because I love learning, too!

Here’s the thing–don’t stop discovering.  People often do this for some stupid reason.  One morning we wake up and decide we’re adults now and there’s nothing exciting left to discover on planet earth or anywhere else for that matter, because we pretty much get how it all works.  We forget that everything is actually nuts.  We talk to people on cell phones and take for granted that invisible streams of something (sorry, I clearly still have no clue what’s really going on) are going to space (I think?) and then finding just the right other-person’s-phone to go to, where voices are unscrambled (maybe?) in a plastic device that was made from the ground.  Oh yeah, that’s not weird at all.  (I asked the guy at the Verizon store how cell phones work.  He said, “It’s pretty simple really, the phone sends out a signal.”  “Oh,” I said, “I didn’t realize there was a signal involved. Silly me. I get it now.” And then I punched him in the face…Okay, I didn’t really punch him in the face, but I wanted to.)

I used to be asleep to all the cool stuff around me.  But over the last few years I’ve discovered something wonderful that has changed my life completely. The important secret is this: Learning can be worship.

If you accept this holy secret and are faithful to the true spirit of learning, you will be blessed beyond measure. Curiosity will bubble up in your like a fountain as you hunger and thirst to know more about God’s world, and in turn, more about God.   This has been the thrill of the past several years of my life—to learn, to grow, to discover. It’s like sitting at a table covered with every kind of incredible food and choosing what you’re going to eat first (your questions are the forks and spoons!).

Rea Rea, I just can’t wait to worship God as we learn together in the years to come.