When God Plays

     I believe in God. Some people do, some don't. I respect your decision either way. I have my reasons for believing. I was raised in church, but that's not why I believe. Yes, that's how I heard about God, and Jesus and prayer, but that's not why I believe. There are many reasons I believe, but one of the main reasons is I have had too many things happen when I prayed that just couldn't be a coincidence.
   
     I was raised from childhood to pray. So I do. I talk to God about everything. Recently, when my grandson was coming to visit, I talked to God about helping me keep the six year old entertained during this time when everybody is supposed to stay away from everybody else.

     Usually, I would take him to a splash pad or the zoo or, his favorite place, the aquarium. But that was not in the cards this time. This time it was just us and the great outdoors. So, we went on adventures, and I hoped he wouldn't get bored.

     I like to go on walks in the morning and stare up at the beautiful sunrise but for a six year old, staring at the sky only keeps his attention for a split second.

     But, I should have never underestimated God. He had it handled from the time my grandson bailed out of the car and ran across the backyard. The first thing he found was a bunny that seemed to have no real desire to hop away.

As he explored more, he found a butterfly 

                                                                   that seemed to enjoy being petted. 

Now butterflies are nice, but my grandson loves dragonflies. So God made sure he threw thousands of them around my house just for his entertainment. We went dragonfly hunting just about every day.

Those creatures are fairly common around our place, so after the first day I was again worried that my grandson would get bored with seeing the same animals and bugs every day. But, never fear, God wanted to play. 

On one of our morning walks, I saw a dark mound under a tree. At first glance I thought it was just a pile of leaves, but I decided to inspect a little closer.

 It was a turtle. Now, seeing a turtle is cool, but God just decided to show off and let us watch as the turtle laid eggs. I've never seen a turtle lay eggs. Have you?

My grandson is fascinated with bugs of all kinds. He can tell you interesting facts about many of them. On one of our walks we found a live Cicada still in it's exoskeleton.

It was in the middle of the street so we decided to rescue it. My grandson asked how long it would be before it shed it's shell. I had no idea. 

After putting the Cicada on a low branch in one of our trees, we went inside. 

Of course, ten minutes later we had to check on him. 

Do you know what we found?

We found him shedding his shell! God was really enjoying playing, and he wasn't done yet.

A storm was coming and my grandson asked when was the best time to see lightning. I told him when it got dark. God figured the best way for him to see was to show him. So he put on a magnificent lightning show. (not my photo, I was too busy watching the show)

We found mounds of golden mud in our yard on one of our adventures and my grandson asked what it was from. I told him it was a crawdad hole. God didn't want the little boy just to see an empty hole without showing him what lives in it, 

so...

I thought I had seen everything by then. I had lived in my house for twenty some odd years and had seen one, count them, one crawdad the whole entire time. You wanna know how many times I have seen a turtle lay eggs before God decided to play? None. El zippo, zilch. Same goes for the Cicada shedding his shell. And guess what? He still wasn't done.





Remember me telling you that my grandson loved bugs.? God decided to put a little icing on the cake before my grandson's trip ended with the appearance of what my grandson called a Citrus Longhorn Beetle. Pretty cool looking little guy.









So yes, I do believe in God, and I do believe he hears us pray. I believe God loves, more than anything, when his kids are joyous and boy did he see joy on a six year old little boy this week when he played with him. Not to mention a few giggles from me.