A Father’s Love

If God is everywhere, why is it so much easier for me to see Him in nature? In nature, water, trees, rocks, animals; God’s fingerprints are all over! I hear His voice as it rustles the leaves in the trees, I can hear the wind coming from a long way off and it travels across the woods, getting louder and louder and finally it reaches me and my hair starts to blow and I feel the wind on my face. I know it’s God. The sun as it dances on the water, the sparkles it makes; I see God. I hear Him in the cry of the Loon as it echoes across the lake, the splash of the water against the rocks on shore. I see Him in the deer that comes out of the woods to the water to drink in the morning or when it’s standing along side the road. I feel Him in the canoe, gliding silently across the water. I hear Him in the silence. I see Him in the ferns that grow in the woods, the wild flowers along the water and the road. I see Him in the huge trees reaching up to the sky, the awesome rocks that are everywhere; the sky so blue, really blue, the white clouds huge and puffy floating along the sky, the blue of the water. The stars at night, so many yet He named each of them and He knows their names! He holds them in space and doesn’t let them fall or run into each other. I gaze and see stars and then look deeper and there are more, deeper still there are more, there are so many some are bright and twinkling, others are so small, some are so close to the tops of the trees, they look as though they are just hanging in space; and they are! I can see the galaxies, the milky ways where the stars are so close together, yet so far away; it looks like white is smeared across the night sky. I think about so many centuries ago people studied the stars and found the big dipper, little dipper, north star, etc. and today we can still see those same constellations, they haven’t changed! God keeps them, He made them, He put them where He wanted them to be and He keeps them. Just like us. He knows my name! He made me, He put me where He wanted me to be; in this generation, in my family, with my parents, the City I live in, it was all ordained and pre-planned by Him when He put me here; and He will keep me. What a thought!

I’ve been observing my husband Bill and how he wants to share who he is with his daughter, Stefanie. It reminds me of one of the first thoughts I used to have when discovering something new or visiting one of my old favorites, was the desire to share it with Tanya’s (my niece) kids. I wanted them to know me by knowing and experiencing what has formed me, what I like, what I consist of, what moves me at the core of me. They even caught on to it when I brought them to Duluth, Matthew looked at me and said “you just like to show us stuff that you like, don’t you?” Out of the mouths of babes! Yes, that was exactly right! So, I’ve been seeing Bill do that. Nature, seclusion, beauty, canoeing, hiking, etc. is a big part of who he is at the core and he wants to show it to Stef and share it with her, to have her experience it. It means so much to him.

I think God is like that; He loves me and wants to share with me who He is, what He consists of and what He loves. But, He is so big and since I’m human, I can’t possibly wrap my brain around all that He is and all He consists of. But, He shows me who He is at His core, His beauty, by showing me the part of Him I have my eyes open to. He shows me through the things I love, like nature and animals, seclusion, simplicity. And when my eyes are open, I see! It’s so true when we seek we will find. When I look, I see. He wants to show me who He is and wants to share Himself with me, but He can only do that when my eyes are open. Like with Bill and Stef, her eyes aren’t open to what Bill wants to show her, she just sees the surface of this and is bored; trees, rocks, water, gravel roads, all of them look the same to her and there is no drama here, it’s boring. It’s all the same. She doesn’t see what Bill wants to show her, she doesn’t see her Dad in all of this, and she doesn’t see God, her eyes aren’t open. But her eyes are open elsewhere, in the City, the concrete jungle. That’s God too, it’s just harder for me to see Him there.