On The Ship

I've been having a lot of health issues lately.  Nothing serious; just annoying stuff.  But it seems I no sooner get over one thing then another problem crops up.  It's been this way for the past few years, and it got me thinking about my life before - when my health was better.  That in turn got me thinking how blessed I've been in my life.  I've had my share of problems with health, family, etc., but God has always been with me.  So I decided I wanted to write about that.  I wanted to go back as far as I could remember and write where I found God in my life.  As I started to picture memories in my mind, I started seeing God almost as a physical presence.  It reminded me of that scene in "The Sixth Sense" where the boy's mom starts looking through his childhood pictures and sees a mysterious light in every one.  Except this is no mystery.  I have no doubt God has been with me all along.

My first real memory is from when I was three years old.  My dad is Greek, and we were traveling to Greece on a transatlantic ocean liner to visit family.  I was on the deck of the ship, spinning around and around because I loved to watch my dress fly out around me.  The sun was shining brightly, and I could feel the warmth on my skin.  And looking back on that moment, I see God with me.  I see Him in the sun pouring His light down over me, drenching me like a fall of golden water.  All I can see with my eyes are my dress, my little arms flinging out as I twirled, and the light so blindingly bright I couldn't see more than a few feet around me.  But the security I felt, the freedom to dance and spin - that was God.  He was shining down on me before I even understood what it meant to look for Him.  I found Him there in the light and the warmth twirling on the deck of a ship in the middle of the ocean.