{"id":4741,"date":"2025-07-11T07:59:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T11:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4741"},"modified":"2025-07-11T07:59:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T11:59:33","slug":"the-calculus-of-wonder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/11\/the-calculus-of-wonder\/","title":{"rendered":"The Calculus of Wonder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

You may not recognize Maxwell\u2019s Equations.\u00a0

But just by booting up your computer and opening this email, you\u2019re enjoying one of the many things they\u2019ve made possible in this world.

Between 1861 and 1862, about the time Abraham Lincoln was getting settled into the White House, the Scottish physicist and mathematician James Clerk Maxwell proposed that light, electricity, and magnetism are not three separate realities.

They are all phenomena of a single \u201csomething\u201d that has come to be called electromagnetism.\u00a0

Maxwell drafted four partial differential equations to show how magnetism, light, and electric current are intimately linked.

In the unlikely event you can\u2019t dial them up from memory, you can see them in the image above.

So what\u2019s the big deal?

Maxwell\u2019s Equations have prompted the creation of electric circuits, radios, cameras, television, computers, motors, generators, and optical technologies, and have led to everything we know about quantum field theory and electromagnetic radiation.\u00a0

Not bad for four scribbles on a chalkboard.

Dr. Walter Lewin, physics professor at MIT, tries to help his students experience the grandeur of Maxwell\u2019s accomplishments. Several weeks into his undergrad course on electricity and magnetism, Lewin displays each of the four equations on massive screens surrounding the lecture hall.\u00a0

\u201cThere is an intrinsic beauty in the way these equations talk <\/em>to one another that is unbelievable.\u00a0You can\u2019t separate them!\u201d he gushes.

Then he commands his students to gaze at the screens.\u00a0\u201cLook at them.\u00a0Inhale them.\u00a0Let them penetrate your brains.\u00a0If you do so, you will never be the same!\u201d

About this time you may be thinking, You know, I never remember science class being that dramatic.\u00a0<\/em>Professor Lewin, not surprisingly, has been honored as one of America\u2019s great living teachers.

To celebrate the momentous day in which he introduces Maxwell\u2019s Equations to his students \u2013\u201cthis intellectual summit you have reached\u201d \u2013 Lewin flings open the classroom doors and brings in 600 daffodils, one for each student.

In his book For the Love of Physics, <\/em>Lewin recalls, \u201cStudents write me many years afterward, long after they have forgotten the details of Maxwell\u2019s Equations, that they remember the day of the daffodils \u2013 the day I marked their new way of seeing with flowers.\u201d

Only physicists, of course, need to master the nuances of Maxwell\u2019s Equations.

But most people can remember the sense of wonder they felt when they first grasped the beauty and sheer immensity of the cosmos \u2013 when they experienced a new way of seeing the night sky.

The same thing is true in our relationship with God.

Do you remember the wonder you felt when it first sank in that God loves you \u2013 really loves you<\/em>?

Or the awe you felt when you grasped that God had provided for you in some remarkable way \u2013 especially when you hadn\u2019t even known how to pray?

Or do you recall the sudden awareness of God\u2019s presence, right about the time you were on the verge of being crushed by a sense of abandonment and loneliness?

The best news is that spiritual wonder is a renewable resource. Most students will be fortunate to experience just one \u201cah-ha\u201d moment with Maxwell\u2019s Equations. But our sense of amazement at God\u2019s amazing grace can happen again and again. And again.

You may never master the nuances of systematic theology.\u00a0

But you can still cultivate a sense of spiritual wonder \u2013 every time you see a daffodil, experience the beauty of a summer day, or grasp yet again that God is in the business of raising the dead.

That adds up to something truly special.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here You may not recognize Maxwell\u2019s Equations.\u00a0 But just by booting up your computer and opening this email, you\u2019re enjoying one of the many things they\u2019ve made possible in this world. Between 1861 and 1862, about the time Abraham Lincoln was getting settled into the White House, the Scottish physicist and mathematician… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[957,160],"class_list":["post-4741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-awe","tag-wonder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4743,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4741\/revisions\/4743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}