Something Beautiful

My First Easter: Written sometime during February 2011 (I suck at dating stuff)
-This specific blog post was written during the time period I was converting to Catholicism


Something beautiful. It’s something we are always searching for in life. For example, a clear night sky can take my breath away. Just a side note— it also causes major swerving as I am driving down the highway trying to take it all in. : ) A bright orange moon, as she is hanging low in the sky, easily makes me smile. Driving down the road in a thunderstorm is music to my soul. It really doesn’t take much effort to find something beautiful. He has placed things all around us. Things to enjoy, things to inspire us, things to remind us of Him. We are surrounded with beauty, we just have to pause long enough to take it all in and appreciate it.

However, I feel the most beautiful things in this world are people. Whether it be a basketball arena full of youth jamming out to Let Us Love, little first-graders asking such cute questions like, “But why do we have to milk them everyday?”, or something so small yet soooo very beautiful like my little nephew Cooper wrapping his arms around my neck. These things are so beautiful to me.

I bring this up because tonight after leaving the high school I witnessed something way beyond beautiful. A little back story before the beautifulness…..

I have been going to Holy Name’s adoration for a while now. I am still fairly new at this whole Adoration thing and at times I feel like I am really screwing it up. If that is even possible. : ) My first little trip was somewhat awkward……”What do I do? When do I kneel? When do I genuflect? Why is it so quiet? Ahhhhh!” Learned a lot that first night, even with the little bat flying around the Chapel. : ) Now each time I go, I feel way more comfortable and get more out of it. I learned after my first little trip to bring my iPod. I sort of feel like I am breaking the rules listening to my iPod, but I enjoy things and am much more comfortable when I have it to listen to. Little did I know, I would not be needing my iPod tonight.

Tonight, I decided to go to Adoration in Ark City for the second time. I remember the first time I went to adoration in Ark City, I drove around and around that dang Church at least 6 times before I went in. haha Then when I finally made it into the Chapel, it was weird because there wasn’t two sides to get into the pews but just one. In order to get to the other side you have to walk in front of everyone and right by Jesus. How do you even handle this? Haha Well I fumbled my way through that one and ended up leaving that night with new observations and a lighter/fuller heart.

So now I was back for round two. I was kind of nervous again….mostly because of the whole one-sided thing. I was thinking, Jesus, I don’t mean to offend you if I do something wrong. : ) haha But by this point I kind of have a little routine down of what I like to do, so I grabbed my iPod and book and headed on into the Chapel. I noticed there was one little van there, so I thought this was a good sign. One person wouldn’t be a big deal and I should be able to sit on that one side.

I walked into the Chapel and immediately knew this trip was going to be different. There was a family of four sitting in the front pews. A mother, a father and two young girls all praying together. Well actually the smallest girl was practically snoring but the others were praying. In fact, the mother was praying aloud……in Spanish. This was cool to see; I smiled to myself. I did my thing, and then sat in the back. For some reason, I felt really, really comfortable this trip. I decided to go check out what the papers in the corner say and what books they have in the back. It was cool; Thanksgivings and prayer needs……or something like that. I turned to go back to where I was sitting and I heard it……a guitar starts to play. I didn’t notice when I first walked in, but the older girl has a guitar…..and she can play this guitar. Score! She was strumming a mellow tune as the mother continued to pray out loud. It was beautiful….and was only gonna get better. I could catch very, very few words of the Spanish she was speaking. But I was so interested in these people. I felt like I was witnessing something very private…yet I felt more at home then ever before. This family was amazing me. They were spending time together, praying, giving thanks to God and they didn’t care who was there to see it. I realized that all my stupid thoughts of if I was doing things correctly were really dumb. It didn’t matter how I spent my time with Jesus. This family was showing me this. Nobody is going to be the same, but to just do what feels right to me. Forget the other people that are there.

Then it started. The girl started playing a song. She then started to sing and before I knew it all four of them (even sleepyhead) were signing this song. Tears formed in my eyes. This was so beautiful. Of course this song was also in Spanish but it was more beautiful than any song I have ever heard on my iPod. I really have no words to describe how I was feeling. After the song was over, the girl playing put down her guitar and followed suit after her mother. She began to pray aloud. “Gracias, Senor para….” Over and over she gave thanks to our Father. I decide to pray with her. Not really knowing all of what she said but catching a little more than when the mother was praying. It was simply amazing. I read and listened to the family sing a few more songs together. I wanted to stay to see what they did at the end of their hour but decided to give them their time alone. As I left, I just kept thinking how blessed I was to get to not only spend time with Jesus but also with them. A beautiful family of four praising and thanking Him with so much passion and no holding back. It was simply beautiful.