Posted by TerryS (24.24.79.72) on November 30, 2000 at 10:28:55:
I SAW GOD TODAY
Today after school, I came home to the usual. I was tired, had lots of
homework, and I was finding some way to relax without looking like I was
procrastinating. I sat on the couch to watch TV, and I heard my
eight-year-old brother making noise in his room. Annoyed, I got up to go
yell at him.
I went in to his room to tell him to be quiet, and he ignored me and
then started chanting a phrase that went something like this: "Vanessa loves
Nick, but he doesn't love you cuz he doesn't know you." He kept repeating
that over and over, and it was driving me crazy. Let me explain my brother's
insanity. I enjoy listening to the music group, the Backstreet Boys.
Especially Nick Carter. He's my favorite, and I have my little brother
absolutely convinced that I'm going to marry him.
While he was chanting away, I stopped him and said, "He may not know me
now, but once he does, he'll fall madly in love with me and take me away to
Disney World so we can get married." I flung my arms as if I had just been
swept up off my feet.
His eyes grew big with delight. "Can I come?," he asked hopefully. I
replied, "Sure, if you behave for the next twelve years." The excitement
that was there initially seemed to drain out of his face. "Twelve years?!,"
he exclaimed. "Why, that's impossible!"
"Besides," he said, "what if you change your mind in twelve years about
who you want to marry?" I thought, and with a smile on my face said, "No, I
like Nick too much... however, there is a possibility that could change." My
brother, however, wasn't convinced that would change. He thinks I really am
going to marry him, while I know that I'm a dreamer.
By now I was thinking, "Boy, he's gonna be mighty disappointed when he
finds out that I'm not going to marry Nick Carter." Suddenly, my little
brother looked up at me and said, "But do you know what?" "What?" I asked.
He replied, "I love you. And that will never change."
He wrapped his arms around me and gave me a hug. Tears came to my eyes,
and I said, "I love you too."
It touched me because even though we would fight all of the time, he
surprised me with his kindness. Later that day, I was talking to God about
it. I said, "Hey God, I saw you today." And then it hit me. Even though we
disobey God, and we try to do things our way, and we insult him by not
trusting him completely or by clouding our minds with fear and doubt, he
still loves us unconditionally.
We grow up, and things happen in our lives that change us. Sometimes
for better, sometimes for worse. If we stumble and fall, God is there to
pick us up. But through it all, He loves us. And that will never change.
--Vanessa Melendez