Sunday, June 15, 2008

Dear God,

I watched a magnificent red male cardinal land on a patio chair just outside my kitchen window. I stopped mopping the floor and just watched him. "How beautiful!" I whispered as I watched him perched on top of the chair. Turning his head from side to side, I could see very clearly the details of his beak and crown. Each line of his feathered body were someone different than the rest. Yes, it was beautiful.

After he flew away I thought of all the minute details of a cardinal. Just one bird and then I remembered when my husband and I traveled to a state park and at dinner watched the birds feeding just inches from the window. Red, black, white, yellow, blue, green, so many colors, so many teeny differences one from the other. Billions, zillions of details in this great and wonderful cosmos.

Although at times there is the occasional doubt, I am drawn back into the circle of faith, espousing your goodness in the world. Random happenings don't appeal to me. Destinies being fulfilled does. Your will being revealed in the world touches, inspires me, heightening my faith. Dots, eternal dots coming together tell me there is this divine design, a grand design to life and creation. And once again I fall into praise.

Yesterday I cared for my two year old granddaughter Lucy. What I saw through her eyes was amazing. I took her outside with me to trim some bushes. She took the plastic thing you close chip bags with. While I trimmed, she pinched leaves and flowers. She would lean down, take hold of a flower petal and pinch it with the plastic closure. She stood up, proud that she was helping and I saw yellow all over her nose and upper lip. Apparently, she had stuck her nose into the center of the flower. "Oh Lucy! The flower kissed you." I told her. "I can't see it." She said trying to look at her nose. I carried her into the house and held her up to the mirror. She smiled so big. "A lilly kissed your nose." I said. "Have you ever been kissed by a yellow lilly before?" "No!" She responded.

Such an incident massages my faith ever more deeply inside. The wonder on Lucy's face, the beauty of the color yellow, the helpful pinching of the flowers and leaves, the delicate features on this wondrous child and the love that ever bursts forth on my granddaughter deepens my faith in you and your plan for the world.

A cardinal, a granddaughter, and a clean floor all give me cause to smile and praise today.

The slightest sound
of your coming
causes me
to rise up,
to listen,
to watch,
to see
the images
of life
around me.
What can
one do
but give praise?
I thank you
for the rich details
of creation,
each one
a testimonial
in itself.
Praise,
praise,
praise,
to you.

Love, Andrea