If God is easy to find in the quiet and silence, He is not so easily found in the chaotic and noisy. I have been incredibly shorthanded at work this week, and I have struggled to keep up with the workload.
But God is there. I do not confuse my inability to sense His presence with His actual absence. During busy weeks, it simply means having to make the extra effort to go out and find Him.
One of the ways that I do this (and I am blessed to be able to do this) is to go out into the forest - we live near the Greenbelt forest of Conroy Pit. Tonight my daughter and I walked out there to the glow of the setting sun. We wandered through the crabapple trees and my daughter climbed them as the sun began to cast itsorange glow about. Then we wandered into a field as the sun went down and the sky was daubed with orange and pink. In the afterglow we wandered into the pines, and she climbed one of those, too.
As we walked home in the dusk, she asked me, "What's my purpose?"
"I don't know," I answered as truthfully as I could, "but one day, you'll surely know."
"Does everyone have a purpose, one that's the same?"
"To live," I answered. "That's everyone's purpose. Not the whole of your purpose, but a large chunk of it. it is an incredible thing to live... to hear, to see, to touch, to smell... but above all, to be able to do those things and make sense of it."
We walked quietly home.
It is a wonderful thing to go out looking for God, and to find Him. Not just in the sunset and woods, but also in the seeking meditations of a daughter and her father.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Purpose
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5 comments:
That's beautiful.
I remember living near a forest when I was a child. I used to go mushroom-picking with my parents in the summer... flower-picking in the spring... In the fall we'd wonder into a "secret gardent", and take wild apples for jam... In the winter, I'd go sledding with my father... And sometimes, in late spring, early summer, we'd have picnics, and play cards, because it was nice and warm there. It was so beautiful! But I think my favorite was winter-time. Forests are just so magical when they are empty, quiet, and covered with snow...
...and free of bugs! ;-)
Curiously enough, the forests are still full of snow. It takes a lot longer for the snow to melt in the shade I guess.
Colorado is full of snow as well. : ( When is the spring coming?
It's amazing how old people, middle aged people, and children all wonder about their purpose. Your kid sounds amazing.
I have two lovely daughters, and the many years I have been able to be a part of their life and growth have been... amazing. And I am grateful for the chance. :-)
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