It's a Great Friday

Good Friday is the perfect day to reflect on blessings, big and small.


Of course we should do that every day, and I sincerely try to, but the reality is that the daily grind too often lends itself to dwelling on the negative.


So today I'm grateful for an untied shoestring. That shoestring caused 2-year-old Bella to trip -- and kept her from running into the path of a speeding car. Bella had let go of her grandmother's hand and, in true toddler fashion, was flying off in the blink of an eye. But God's eyes saw her.


God's eyes saw me before there was anything to see. My father was not meant to be in my life, but my grandfather sure was. And so although I didn't have a "dad," per se, I have had a Dad all my life. His name is Popaw, a moniker developed by a crawling baby Me, as I sped down the hallway to get to my grandfather, chattering "Aw-paw, Aw-paw, Aw-paw" as I went. It's pretty obvious to me that God put my first word in my mouth.


I also believe that God was there, some 20 years ago, in the dissolution of a marriage. Though I know the divorce was painful, without it I never would have met my best friend, Angie. When her parents split, Angie, her sisters and her mom moved to Northern Kentucky, where Angie and I met in eighth grade, both of us "new kids" coming from Catholic schools. That was 1988. She is my best friend to this day. Had her parents stayed together, Angie and I would be strangers. Did God break up a union to put Angie and me together? I don't think of it exactly that way. But out of something dark, He created light.


I don't always remember that, but I'm trying, because the pieces really do start to fit when you look for it to happen. You start to see coincidences, little moments, observations you wouldn't have noticed before, but suddenly -- aha!


So today and this weekend, I hope we all resolve to look for the light. And maybe more important, I hope we all resolve to help each other look for the light, even when it's the hardest thing to do.


No, especially when it's the hardest thing to do.