God’s Magical World

I was watching the movie “Boyhood” a few nights ago and there’s this great scene in the movie where the son asks the father if there’s any magic left in the world.  And I love the response of the father:

“Well, I don’t know.  I mean, what makes you think that elves are more magical than something like a whale?  You know, I mean, what if I told you a story about how underneath the ocean, there was this giant sea mammal that used sonar, and sang songs, and it was so big that its heart is the size of a car?  And that you can crawl through his arteries? I mean, you’d think that was pretty magical, right?”

In this time of so much exposure to information, we begin to lose the ability to see the grandiosity of God as Creator.  When I was in junior high I went whale watching and I thought I would get to see the entire whale not just a piece of the top of his head.  And I remembered wishing that I could submerge into the waters so that I could appreciate the whale in its entirety.  There’s something quite magical about God’s creation, but many of us miss it every single day because we have lost the wonder and curiosity- that childish ability to be awed.  I went to a conference once and the speaker told us to extend our arm out and admire our hand to make fists, expand it and to twirl it around.  He said scientist have worked years trying to replicate (in prosthetics) the movement that comes so natural to each of us.  My little bird loves to sing with my dad- he recognizes his voice and every afternoon the two break in song.  There’s so much beauty in the natural world around us.  Chesterton said that people who believe in fairy tales never go mad - people who still see magic in the world never go mad (smile).

When I look at the sky covered in cotton clouds, when I feel the chill of the wind, or when my little dog spins in happiness over my arrival- I see God’s magic and I rejoice.  We are all part of a beautiful story- God’s story- and there are many blank pages still in front of us in which to write our own fairytales.  I was raised in a culture of Mexican soap operas where repeatedly love is exaggerated and never grows past the wedding day- I don’t want that in my story. There's nothing wrong with flowers, poetry and romance-but the beauty of love happens in the realness of everyday life.  I want to learn to love selflessly to grow with each passing day and to help my partner grow in Christ too.  To be inspired and for us to guide each other towards heaven.  I look at my parents’ marriage and that’s what I want- their beautiful reality with pains and oh so much laughter… Lately, I have been reading so many books on courtship or dating- to be honest at this point I don’t care what you label it.  They all have their own views on the subject- do this, don’t do this…  My mind is a jumble of dating philosophies.  Then I think of God and I know that his plan for men and women was never meant to be so complicated.  Man asks girl out to coffee, girl says yes and then they build on that discerning if friendship is the final stage of that relationship or if perhaps God wants more for the two of you together.  I think that’s the common pattern I have noticed in all the books. Simple.

Yet, we take it into our hands and we complicate it- we make a mess of it.  We like each other- yet the obstacles and fears seem bigger.  At one of the cruises we broke the two genders apart and we talked about what concerned us about the opposite sex.  Men listen up: women are not these fragile beings that break easily we can handle rejection anytime over confusing kindness, let your no be no and your yes be yes- that my friends is what a gentleman does.  In the event that things don’t work out remember that we are godly folks and we know that no matter the conclusion to the discernment process we will always have God to provide for our needs.  We will recover in due time. I know for a long part of my life I felt like I didn’t want to be the cause of someone’s heartache- I felt like I needed to protect men by staying clear from their path.  Then I dated a Christian for six years and he told me the most hurtful words you can say to a proud soul, “Penny, if you leave me I am going to be ok, I am always going to have God.”  Wow! What wisdom.  Our happiness, joy and peace should never be placed on a finite being.  That’s what God teaches us- I am a jealous God worship me only.  I love that quote, “immature love says, I love you because I need you and mature love says, I need you because I love you.” So don’t let fear of breaking someone’s heart keep you from possibly discovering the best ally to accompany you to heaven or at least to purgatory (smile).