Gobsmacked

[gobsmacked]

                                            »utterly astonished, astounded

I was sitting in a room with 800 other Children’s Pastors last week and the speaker asked, “When was the last time you were gobsmacked by God’s word?” The word gobsmacked, which is an informal British word, originated from the combining of the two words gob and smacked and literally means to clap ones hand to the mouth in amazement.

Are you gobsmacked by God’s word? Sometimes I am, but more often I am not. I often read my Bible with the comfortable feeling of familiarity. I greet my Bible like an old friend. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it is an attitude that usually does not lead to wonder and amazement at God’s power.

 The question, are you gobsmacked, immediately brought to mind a kid named Sammy. We were in the middle of our Wednesday night club at church and the teacher was up front telling the Bible story to the large group of kids in the room. The teacher was telling the story in a way that had completely captivated his audience. It was a story you and I have heard a million times, and I don’t even remember which one it was.  I don’t think that I was even paying much attention until Sammy shouted out in the middle of the lesson: “That’s Awesome!” Sammy was gobsmacked: open mouthed, no-that-did-not-just-happen amazement at God’s Word.

Jesus said we should have the faith of little children.  Children enter into the telling of the story. Children believe without a lot of background information.  Children are willing to take God at His word. Sammy wasn’t trying to figure out the way physical laws had been broken, or trying to expose the lie of the illusion, and he wasn’t questioning the veracity of the text. He was gobsmacked by God’s Word! Absolute wonder! “Did He really? Yes, He totally did! Awesome.”

Did Jesus really heal the sick, walk on water, live a perfect life, die and rise from the dead? My response should be an awestruck and emphatic “Oh yes He did!”

The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: “Don’t push these children away. Don’t ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.” Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them. (Mark 10:13-15, The Message)