Rapt in Wonder: T.S. Arthur’s Short Story ‘Amy’s Question’

A wonderful story on a child’s insight into wonder.

T.S. Arthur's short story, "Amy Questions" tells us there is something about the moon that reflects God's love, wisdom, and truth. Evgeny Atamanenko/Shutterstock

As we go through our regular days, passing from one activity to the next, we can get so lost in doing the next thing that we forget to stop and wonder at the marvelous world around us.

In his short story “Amy’s Question,” T.S. Arthur shows us the importance of wonder. Amy discovers beautiful truths by asking the simplest question about the moon.

Lost in Wonder

When Mrs. Grove calls to her young daughter, Amy, and gets no reply, she begins to worry for her girl. She calls outside and inside with no response. She asks her son and he tells her that Amy is in her room.

Yet when Mrs. Grove calls up to her room, she does not hear any response. Mrs. Grove walks up to Amy’s room, extremely worried.

Opening Amy’s door, Mrs. Grove is shocked to find that her little girl is simply staring at the night sky, “so lost in the beauty of the moonlit sky and her own thoughts that she does not hear the noise of her mother’s entrance.” The scene outside has enraptured her.

A Simple Question

Upon realizing that her mother is in the room, Amy beckons her over to the window to look at the beautiful moon: “Isn’t it beautiful, mother? And it makes me feel so quiet and happy. I wonder why it is?”

Touched by Amy’s simple wonder, Mrs. Grove decides to help her daughter find the marvelous truth. God, Mrs. Grove says, created everything. Because he created it, everything is beautiful and good.

Each thing, Mrs. Grove explains to Amy, was created to aid man. Each is meant to help sustain “the life of his body or the life of his soul.” The physical attributes of each thing typically aid man’s body. However, each created thing possesses a reflection of God’s love and wisdom, which sustains the soul.

Mrs. Grove tells Amy that the moon and stars are bright at night. Their physical light aids little Amy when she is journeying home at night from a friend’s home. And yet, there is something about the moon that reflects God’s love, wisdom, and truth that calms the soul and makes Amy happy and quiet.

Something about the moon’s cool light comforts the soul and conveys the truth of God’s kindness and love in the darkness.

Amy’s wonder leads her to ask a simple “I wonder why?” Arthur shows us that this question is crucial. It leads us to truths and values that we would otherwise not have found.

In his book, “Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb,” Albert Einstein says: “He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.” When we allow ourselves to be too caught up in our daily activities, we lose our ability to wonder.

Wonder leads to wisdom. For in this wonderment, we find amazing truths about ourselves and the wonderful world around us. We will be able to see God’s wisdom and love, even in the dark.

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