As my wife and I were walking, we caught ourselves identifying wildflowers beside the path—or at least as many as we could. There are a lot of wildflowers in Ireland, and it’s hard to keep all the names straight. As we wondered about some of the varieties, we also began to wonder if such wondering about flower names is a sign of getting older. We feed birds in our garden, after all, and keep track of which kinds of songbirds visit us. Caring about such things is often associated with age, isn’t it? If so, we’ve decided that this is clearly a benefit of aging, not something to be avoided. Noticing the beauty God put around us is always a good idea, and if it’s associated with getting older then I reckon that’s a sign that older people are generally wiser and have figured out more about what is really important on this planet. It’s not only the old who notice these things, either.

My friends told me that their little granddaughter was fascinated by everything in the garden. Her first word was “Wow!”—a word she used liberally as she held her grandparent’s hands and looked at the flowers, the trees, the chickens, the grass, and the rhubarb. She didn’t know the names of any of them. She couldn’t identify which plants were tasty, which flowers were weeds, or what varieties were native to Ireland. She just looked at them all and said, “Wow!” Which was, of course, the correct response to the wonders God has surrounded us with. If we really took the time to notice the things we’ve grown so accustomed to, we’d be compelled to offer the same response: “Wow!”

I don’t think the young are naive to be impressed by the world. I don’t think the old have their priorities wrong in seeking, planting, and naming the beauty around them. Somehow most of us in between tend to forget just how full of wonder the world really is—but it’s never too late to start remembering. Even if you only have one word for the world, it can be enough:

Wow!