Dear Grace,
There was a huge lightning storm tonight! Grandma and I went out on our deck and watched it for an entire hour. I couldn’t help but think of you while I was standing there, watching the sky light up with purple and white light. At that moment I wished you had been there to share that with me. It was so beautiful.
I think God really knew what he was doing when he made this world for us. Every single little delicate thing, from a spider web’s fine thread, to the stocky trunk of a tree, everything is so carefully constructed and connects to everything else. I’m still amazed when I come home on a clear night and see the stars all winking down at me, or when I watch the baby birds in their nest underneath our deck. This world has a lot of bad things in it, but sometimes I get so wrapped up in that fact, that I forget all of the beautiful and wonderful things that are still right there for us. It’s like the lyrics to that song I saw God Today where he says: Saw a flower growing in the middle of the sidewalk, pushing up through the concrete, like it was planted right there for me to see. The flashing lights, the honking horns all seem to fade away, in the shadow of that hospital, at 5:08, I saw God today. I’ve been to church, I’ve read the book, I know he’s here, but I don’t look near as often as I should, yeah I know I should. His fingerprints are everywhere, I just slow down to stop and stare, open my eyes, and man I swear, I saw God today…
I really like that part about Gods fingerprints being everywhere. It’s so true, because some days it feels like something has been planted right in my path for me to see to remind me of who’s watching over me. We can’t see His face with our mortal eyes, but we can learn to recognize when He is here with us by the things we see around us where He has been. I’ve seen him in sunsets, in the flowers pushing up through the bricks on our front patio, in the budding roses in my garden, in Grandma’s eyes when she tells me she loves me, in the laughter of my friends, in the face of a sleeping baby…He is everywhere, if we just take the time to look for him.
But it’s like I said before, we become so distracted with what’s going on in the world that we forget to look for him, and when we see that beautiful sunset, or those flowers, that’s all they are to us anymore. A sunset or a flower. When I see where God has been, where he has planted flowers and grass and trees, where he has aligned the stars, where he pushes in clouds or rain, it reminds me of how much he loves me and cares about me. He knows how much of a hippy-chick I am and how much I love springtime and watching things come back from the dead of winter. It always feels like those sunsets and those stars were put there especially for me whenever I see them.
I’ve taken to writing letters to God recently, and it’s been interesting to talk to him that way. Whenever I say my personal prayers, my mind always strays and I lose concentration about what I’m praying for. It always takes all of my concentration skills to make it through a prayer without daydreaming.
Well this is a short letter, but it was really a spur-of-the-moment sort of thing, because I just felt like writing to you after watching that lightning storm. I love you Gracie Lou, and I think about you almost every day.
Love,
Auntie Katie
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