Windwhispers

I love Starbucks, if you hadn't already guessed. It helps, of course, that there is one right across the street from my dorm. My seat is always by the window. I don't like dark corners, so I claim one of the little round tables by the wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor window. That way, I can watch the seasons change, which somehow relaxes me even when the class work gets frantic. Of course, it reminds me, too, that time is going by quickly, and I'll be graduating in May. But after 3 and a half years of being a college student, I think I've finally learned something really important (not that the names of every one of President Lincoln's generals weren't important): God is in the little things. And this is what keeps going through my mind, lately:

The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”

   Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 

~1 Kings 19:11-13~

God's voice is in the breeze, the song that rustles the pastel flowers off the trees that line the sidewalk on my college campus. It always dawns one me at the end of the semester. Just when I think I can't do anymore, I can. And not by my own power. The moment I'm overwhelmed by all the work I need to get done, a class gets canceled. Just about the time I'm ready to give up doing by best and let everything go, someone tells me I'm going to be OK. My mother calls just to say hi, a friend makes me laugh, the snowflakes outside my Starbucks window suddenly resemble lace. So, I'm determined this semester. I'm not going to wait until the end. Every day, I'm going to look for the little things. Who knows? Maybe these last few months will be better than all the rest combined. 

Oh, and that little thing this weekend? I got to hold my newborn niece. I couldn't take my eyes off her even though all she did was sleep! And so, I imagine that God must love us that way. We enthrall him even when we are helpless, tiny in his hands. Maybe that is actually a big thing.