It's past bedtime for the four and six year old but we couldn't quite reach the blankets for the mess.
After a lengthy clean they crawl in and I tell them a story about when I was a girl. When I celebrated Easter at Grandma and Paga's home.
Their eyes shine thinking about searching for eggs in the pasture and closing all the windows up while we waited for the uncles and Grandpa to hide.
Little girl then asks a very common question around here. "Where was Conner and Raleigh and Dawson and Timmy and me then?"
And she can answer it herself, too. "Were we a thought in God's mind?"
Yes, yes, dear one. A thought in God's mind. Waiting, waiting to bring the gift of you to me. A much better gift than an Easter Egg hunt.
Before the beginning of time, she, the boys, me, you, all a thought in God's mind. He purposing time, place, people, characteristics, all. For Him. For His purposes. For a plan larger than fathomable.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Indeed. How easy it is to flippantly encounter others, live my days, involve myself in me when God ordained each one. Each one a thought in His mind before I ever came to be.
...he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
Dear little daughter, believe. Your life is full of purpose. Ordained by God exactly.
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
Seek Him. Reach out for Him. Know He is not far from any of us.
text: Psalm 139.15,16, Acts 17.25-27, NIV
