All Creation Sings Praise to God

Today I went down to the docks and sat on a rock overlooking the water, taking everything in. The water was so calm and the sky was bright blue. As I sat there contemplating God, listening to the sound of the waves rhythmically lapping the rocks, my soul felt such calm, such peace. It was the first time since I got back from Haiti that I was truly silent and let God fully enter my heart.

One of the major personal themes of my trip to Haiti was growing in my awareness of God the Father, the Creator, and deepening my relationship with Him. This past year, I've focused so much on my relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit and haven't given the Father much thought. In my mind He was more of a distant reality, not the first Person of the Trinity who we are capable of having a personal and intimate relationship with. During one morning prayer, one of the team members on my trip brought up the quote "All creation sings praise to God simply by being fully what the Creator intended." What he said really struck me, that everything in nature- the plants, the animals, the earth itself- gives glory and praise to God just by being what He created them to be. The harmony of nature is itself a song of praise to the Creator. Biology and faith are not separate, but are in fact connected on the deepest level. This caused me to have a whole new outlook on things.

It is very easy to appreciate nature when you're in Haiti. It is right in your face and holds a power over you that it doesn't in the States, where we have a lot of things separating us from it. The stars are so bright it feels like you can reach out and touch them. The lightening at night coming over the hills is so clear and the rain is so fresh. Everything around me came alive when I started paying more attention to it. I found that as I became more aware, I started feeling more natural in my own body. I was tapping into the harmony of nature and surrendering myself to it as well. My soul felt a peace that I had not experienced before. It felt a freedom, a lightness. I was glorifying God in my every action, by living out the life that He wants me to live. By being the person that He wants me to be.

When we as humans surrender ourselves to His will and be who we were created to be, it must give the Father so much greater glory and joy than the rest of creation. This is because everything else in nature is programmed to be obedient to the laws of creation. Humans have the power to choose. We have free will. We can make a conscious and rational decision to either follow God's will in our lives or our own. God gave us this gift so that we could choose to love Him, not be forced to. Living our lives in accordance with His plan for us is one of the sweetest gifts and forms of praise that we can give to our Father. It fills His heart with joy. You may not know now what the Father's plan is for you. But if you spend time in silence and ask the Father to reveal it to you, He will in His own time, in His own way.

When I was sitting down by the water, I said a rosary. It was one of the sweetest rosaries I have ever said. I sat there with my eyes closed, with the warmth of the sun on my face and the power of the Holy Spirit rushing past me in the wind. In Volume 3 of Anne a Lay Apostle, God the Father says "Dear children, as you have been told, you cannot see the wind, but you see the power of the wind and you see the beautiful things that can be achieved when you harness that power. I am the same." I felt so small sitting there, and God felt so big. About half way through the rosary, after I had spent some time contemplating the power and goodness of God, I felt the wind die down. Then a tremendous feeling of love overswept my heart. It was so tender, so pure. I know it was God revealing to me a fraction of the love that He feels for me, His child. He feels this for every single one of us, whether we believe in Him or not. He doesn't show it to us in its entirety because He knows like a wise Father that we would not be able to handle it in our humanity.

We all have a Father in Heaven. We are all His children and He yearns to give us each His love.