My parents weren’t real picture takers growing up. There are some, but not volumes and volumes (or boxes and boxes depending on how your family operates). I’m not sure why, but whenever I think of childhood photographs, I always think of one of me and my Dad in the lame cars on the track at Disneyland. To be honest, I don’t remember specifics of that trip, but there is a feeling that wells up inside of me when looking at the photo; when gazing into the wide-eyed wonder of that little boy I know is still inside me somewhere and I wonder: what happened to that sense of amazement?

Do you remember going to Disneyland for the first time? Or maybe it was Disneyworld if you’re on the other side of the world I know? Or maybe Six Flags, or Knotts Berry Farm, or the State Fair, or the County Fair, or the traveling fair? Something loud and seemingly chaotic and overwhelming but joyfully exuberant nonetheless? Do you remember walking around in wide-eyed amazement, just trying to soak it all in, finding yourself unable to contain the “WHOA, LOOK AT THAT’s!!!” In the midst of that wide-eyed wonder, did it ever occur to you that the amusement park just happened by chance?

Welcome to the world of N.D. Wilson. Wilson, in an organized, unorganized way beckons us to travel with him through this amusement park of a world. How could we not be amazed when we:

“live on a near perfect sphere hurtling through space at around 67,000 miles per hour. Mach 86 to pilots”?

Wilson goes on to put this into perspective:

“Of course, this sphere of mine is also spinning while it hurtles, so tack on an extra 1,000 miles per hour at the fat parts. And it’s all tucked into this giant hurricane of stars. Yes it can be freaky. Once a month or so, my wife will find me lying in the lawn, burrowing white knuckles into the grass, trying not to fly away. But most of the time I manage to keep my balance despite the speed, and I don’t have to hold on with anything more than my toes.”

With a balance of humor, with and sarcasm, some might see Wilson’s take on the universe, and God, a bit irreverent. But dig a bit deeper, and you’ll find that nothing could be farther from the truth. This is a man who has drunk deeply at the well of God’s grandeur. How often are you moved to praise by thunderstorms, let alone ants? Wilson walks us through some of his thought process while interacting with daily events and looming-large philosophers. He does a tremendous job at distilling several (very) large philosophical arguments to day-to-day language and then filtering them through the Gospel. This is everyday theology.

But most of all, Wilson is especially moved by the wonder of it all, and for that I am unfathomably thankful. How often do we take everything for granted? I mean everything? The roaring of the sea, the falling of the snow, the hanging of the icicles, the order of the ants, the approach of the thunderstorm? Wilson forces us to pause and see again through the eyes of faith, again like that child in awe of the Tilt-A-Whirl for the first time? Have you forgotten that you ride one every day of your life? Let Wilson remind you.

I am so thankful that this book came to me at just the time I needed to be reminded of God’s infinite-ness and my finiteness and just how amazing it all is. That every breath I take, every step I walk, is a gift from Him and that it all fits in His story, for His glory and my good. How often I need to have my view of God expanded and my view of self detracted. This book has played a small role in that for me. I highly recommend it.

*NOTE In honor of full disclosure, I received a copy of this book for free from Thomas Nelson Publishers to review here. Further disclosure: I would have said it was bad if it were. It’s not. Please read it.

• Read Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God’s Spoken World by N.D. Wilson