This passage immediately makes me think of times or moments where I have seen God: maybe not literally but figuratively. These moments are where there is an unexplainable peace, calming or where the outcome of events has no other explanation other than God having a hand in what just transpired. Times like these are everywhere; a birth or passing, a near miss accident, the kind word or gentle touch in a time of need, a child's smile or even the feeling you get hearing songs of the Christmas Season. For me, most of these revelations of God's presence have come and are centered around my son Gabriel. When Gabriel was born, laid on my chest and I gazed into his eyes one of my first comments is that he looked familiar, like someone I had already met. My husband laughed and said of course he looks familiar. But to me it was more than the genetics of seeing a little bit of our families in him, it was seeing a familiar "old soul" and there was a certain calming and peacefulness about it. 

 

 I had another revelation of God's presence a short four months after Gabriel's birth. My husband's maternal grandmother had developed and was succumbing to pancreatic cancer. A few days before her passing, she held Gabriel one last time and in a whispered voice told Dan and me she would watch him grow and love him through our eyes now. Those words swelled my heart and gave me a sense of peace about the coming loss our family would suffer. 

 Then three years later, my father-in-law unexpectedly became sick. He struggled for a year before he lost "our" battle for his life. I could see God's hand in so many aspects of not only our struggle to save Mr. Johnny's life, but the timing of his passing (the day before all Soul's Day) and in Gabriel's understanding and acceptance that Grandpa was watching and loving him from Heaven. This understanding was most evident a month later when at the age of only four my child was asking to be baptized. He also started insisting every Sunday to light prayer candles after communion. To this day we find ourselves having to limit him, saying just two or three candles this week. One candle is always lit for Grandpa and another for whomever he thinks needs extra comfort, love or healing for the week. Now at the age of 6, Gabriel seems to have a better realization of God than I have ever had and through our angel's familiar "old soul" eyes I see and feel God's presence.