Sunday, June 3, 2007

Dearest God,

My daughter is six months pregnant, suffering with pre-term labor so I drove to her home to take care of my two grandchildren. A couple hours later my daughter and her husband returned home. The hospital staff had been able to stop the contractions. I decided to stay the night in the event something else happened.

I had brought two sleeping bags. My granddaughter loves sleepovers so I placed them on the living room hardwood floor. (Boy, was that wood hard!) It was 10:00 p.m. and everyone was bedded down. "Gabrielle, do you want to say our prayers?" I asked my grandchild as we each scooted down into our bags. "No, Grandma, why don't you say them?" She replied. "I thought you wanted to be a pastor, maybe you could pray." I told her. With not a moment's hesitation, that young seven year old began praying. She first prayed for all who had problems, everyone who was suffering (her words). Then she went on to tell God how much she loved him, that she would love him forever and she wanted to help people to show him how deep her love was. I was blown away. The faith of this child rises from a deep place.

As she said amen and we hugged goodnight, I looked at that little girl, amazed by her devotion. Sensitive, kind, and very loving she makes her faith real, no playing around for her. "Lord, you have a hold on her life." I whispered to you.

Was she born with such love? Does her DNA contain a strand of devoted love for the sacred? I remember the first time I saw her, a newborn just minutes old. Her mother was bleeding, hemorraghing really. I didn't know what was going on at first. So I sang to Gabrielle, a child of God. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are blue. You'll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away." I put my pinky finger in her mouth, a pacifier to calm her from her traumatic birth. In those first moments did you meet her in some mysterious way? Was her birth a mystical experience? Thank God, her mother was spared although the months following were a nightmare. Was she being prepared for hardship that came too soon?

In just a few weeks at the ocean's edge, Gabrielle and I will dance a sacred dance of praise to God. Dressed in lavender dance dresses that she picked out for us, we will make our offering to God for the baptism of Lucia, her sister whom I will baptize. We will move with your spirit, the two of us, blending our hearts and spirits with yours. A grandaughter and her grandmother moving as one.

What mystery is revealed
when hearts come together,
united by one great spirit.
A sacred, divine rhythm
will flow,
crying out its love and devotion.
God outside,
God inside,
God beside,
below, above.
Purely God.

Humbly yours, Andrea