Joining in Everyone’s “Wow!”
Children are excited when they learn their first few words. They love to practice them over and over. Two of our youngest grandson’s favorite words these days are mower and broke. On a walk with his Notty and Little one day, he saw a big boat on a trailer and declared with glee: “Mower!” Lately he has been declaring one item after another as “broke!”
When our daughter, Bethany, was little, she loved to say, “Wow!” One day, as we were driving from Mississippi to Tennessee to visit our parents, we came to a crossroads in the middle of the countryside. “Wow!” she exclaimed.
Her older sibling used his two-years-older logic to correct her, “Bethany, there’s nothing Wow here.”
Oops. I don’t know that he meant to burst her little bubble. I’m going to give him credit for being simply a logical firstborn who was only three or four years old.
As we grow past three or four, though, we have the privilege of affirming everyone’s “Wow!” even if we can’t see the Wow ourselves. Sometimes we don’t see another person’s Wow because they see something we don’t see, but we’d be better off if we did see. In those situations, we have the opportunity to learn from the other person—even if that other person is younger or older or in some other way different from ourselves. Sharing a Wow is another way to:
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit,
but with humility of mind
regard one another as more important than yourselves;Â
do not merely look out for your own personal interests,
but also for the interests of others.
Philippians 2:3-4
Just one moment of seeking to learn and understand, while laying aside our own first impressions, has the potential of opening up a grand, new world of joys we have been missing all our lives.
Sharing another person’s joy is one way to rejoice with them. It always feels good when you feel joy and have someone else to share it.
Rejoice with those who rejoice,
and weep with those who weep.Â
Be of the same mind toward one another;
do not be haughty in mind,
but associate with the lowly.
Do not be wise in your own estimation.
Romans 12:15-16
In Luke 6, Jesus told three parables about things that were lost and then found: a man who lost and found a sheep, woman who lost and found a coin, and a man who lost and found a son. The man who found his sheep told his neighbors: “Rejoice with me . . . .” The woman who found her coin also told her neighbors: “Rejoice with me . . . .”
Of course, losing and finding a son is the most important loss and recovery, but I like the way Jesus also showed the importance of sharing the joy of a man who found one sheep out of a hundred and of a woman who found one coin out of ten. One coin might not seem particularly valuable to everyone, but it is important that we honor people’s feelings whether those feelings seem immediately important to us or not.
The man whose son was lost and then found must have been heartbroken when his older son refused to share his joy. He told him:
But we had to celebrate and rejoice,
for this brother of yours was dead
and has begun to live,
and was lost and has been found.
Luke 15:32
The problem with the older brother wasn’t the actual value of the cause of rejoicing; the problem was the heart of a son who refused to share his father’s joy.
We have great power when someone comes to us with a Wow or with a joy to share. We can discourage and crush them, or we can encourage and lift them up. Others—young or old—don’t need us to judge their Wows and joys, but to share them. This is what Paul gave to the Philippians and asked the Philippians to give to him:
But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering
upon the sacrifice and service of your faith,
I rejoice and share my joy with you all.
You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way
and share your joy with me.
Philippians 2:17-18