After listening to a recent podcast exploring the power of wonder and why we need it in our lives, I was left curious. If there are benefits of wonder in general, was this also true for sexual wonder?
What if our fascination with nudity and sexual images is less a perversion to be eliminated and more about the God-given emotion of wonder to be embraced and transformed by?
Wonder is defined as a feeling of surprise when we see or experience something beautiful, unusual, or unexpected. Stopped in our tracks, we are overcome with curiosity as we ponder the existence and meaning of something so breathtaking.
Monuments such as the Colosseum in Rome, the Great Wall of China, and the Taj Mahal evoke great wonder and attract visitors from all over the world. However, our sexual bodies are even more marvelous than these structures, as we have been created in the image of God.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made, and this includes our alluring power and erotic desires. It’s a spectacular sight to view the unveiled glory of the human form, something artists have been drawn to for generations.
With the artist Michelangelo, our divinely crafted bodies have a nobility and grandeur that far surpasses our manmade creations. As he declares:
What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot grasp the fact that a human foot is more noble than the shoe and the human skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed.
Our bodies are good, and are, in fact, considered temples of the Divine Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Wonder allows us to meditate on this reality and rediscover our original nakedness before shame (Genesis 2:25).
Sexual wonder includes not only the splendor of our bodies, but also the amazing ways in which we are able to join them together in sexual union.
Despite the objectifying and degrading ways sex is often portrayed in pornography, sex is still an act created and declared very good by God. At its highest, sex is a picture of the loving union God experiences within Himself and the union He desires with each of us. It seems then, it is completely natural and proper to be attracted to and captivated by this image.
Wonder opens the door for us to fully live and move and have our sexual being in God. The more we contemplate the awe of our sexuality, the more we discover about the mysteries of the Divine nature. This is in keeping with the Apostle’s teaching to meditate on those things which are true, noble, and lovely (Philippians 4:8).
The power of sexual wonder is not something we should deny or dismiss. When we don’t allow ourselves to marvel at the goodness of our sexuality, we miss the fullness of what God is trying to communicate through His creation (Romans 1:20).
Wonder is also not something to be shortchanged by limiting our attention to the shallow and predictable pleasures of pornography. Our sexuality is sacred and should not be exploited for mere entertainment.
At the same time, our sexuality doesn’t have to be hidden in secrecy or shame. We can unapologetically enjoy the thrill of sexual wonder, as wonder expands our thoughts and turns our hearts toward God.
Do you allow yourself to experience sexual wonder? How might wonder expand your understanding and experience of sexuality? What might God be revealing through our bodies and sexual expressions? How has sexual wonder opened you to the presence of God?
