Naïve?
By John W. Vander Velden
Sometimes it seems to me
that the world has found itself in the wash cycle, all tossed and tumbled
about. Maybe it has to do with my
age. The years have a way of doing that,
as we wonder about changes, while dwelling on imperfect memories of times
past. I need to remind myself that not
all of the “good ole days” were indeed good.
Yet all the same each of us look around and shake our heads and
wonder. It must be enough to know that
God is in charge…and in the end things will work out.
Yet among societies change
are those that stand firm in their convection that everything is some sort of
random accident, adamant in their view that God does not exist…never has for
that matter. That view, to me, carries
no logic.
You see I have been
fortunate to have labored under sun and sky, tended livestock and tilled
soil. I have worked long hours alone…that
is without other people…but have understood that I was never alone. Raised in a home where God was real, as real
as my sisters and brothers, my mother and father, my Aunt and Uncle, as real as
my best friend that lived down the road.
It doesn’t mean I didn’t question God…what was happening…but never God’s
existence.
Some might think that I
was merely induced to accept His presence, but though I was taught, I have my
own connections. For I have seen God in
the sunrise, the pinks that fill the eastern sky, and in the flaming reds
painted all around at the sun’s evening departure. I have seen God, when the barn’s first dim
light was reflected in the eyes of a newborn calf, or the thin shoots of corn
that crack the soil and reach up toward the sky. I have seen God in the fresh brand new leaves
of spring, and the golds and reds that dress the hardwood in autumn. Truth, I look for Him everywhere and I am not
disappointed. I hear God in the rumbling
thunder that rattles my ribs, but also in the whisper of the leaves that high
above are sent to singing by the summer breeze.
I hear God in the robin’s evening song, and the scarlet clothed Cardinal
welcoming of a new day. I hear Him in the beating heart of my beloved and heard
Him in the first cry of our son that long night years ago. I hear
God when I listen…really listen…and once I heard his voice when in my anguish I
yearned for answers. I feel God in the
wind that sometime pulls at my clothing or shakes the house late at night. I feel God in the cold wet of a sudden
rainstorm that drenches me through and through.
I feel God in the warmth of the sun on a clear winter’s day. I felt God as I held my child those long hours
I walked the floor in the darkness. I feel God all around me in the commonest
and least common places, whenever I draw a breath and take the moment to
notice.
You see unlike those that
purposely close themselves to the possibility of God, I deliberately open myself. The reality is more than words on a
page. The reality is more than hymns and
sermons. The reality is more than the
present state of mind. It is more than
past’s limitations. For God in more than
we can understand. More than
imaginations can reach. Human desire to
be “top of the heap” does not mean we have the right to claim that place. In a fast changing world where breakthroughs
of technology abound, a time when so much of “our” world seems explainable and
soon all questions will fall to the wayside, some see no place in that equation
for a supreme being. But scientific
explanations cannot disregard the creator of science, and the rules of the
universe are too complex to have occurred by chance.
Though the western
hemisphere was unknown in medieval Europe, it did not come into being because
of Columbus’s or any other explorer’s voyage.
We understand that. Whether or
not we acknowledge God, does not change the fact He exists. Each of us has been given the freedom to
choose, a gift of great responsibility.
A responsibility too few have taken the time to consider. Easier to close our minds, one way or the
other, and move along like cattle through our lives, than to take the time
needed to really choose and understand the choosing.
Perhaps I am
fortunate. Perhaps this life style I
have lived offered me opportunities few share.
Perhaps I just allow myself to be open…to see…to hear…to feel…to know. Some might say I am naïve, I would disagree.
(811 Words) 11-4-2015
When I stand where I stand and look about my world,
surveying my place in it all, I am left wondering. If I take the time to consider all my
successes and failures, I find myself surprised at the place I find myself...today.
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