I'm lying on a grass mat, in the middle of the backyard of El Puente, with a sea of endless stars stretching above me. {And, a bug just flew in my mouth...} It's been windy today and the wind is whistling through the trees that are scattered around the landscape.

I've learned to love the wind more on this trip; it used to just annoy me. It would always start up after I had just put chapstick on and would blow my hair in my face. Or it'd kick up when I was walking by a dirt field and scatter the dirt in my direction. However, there have been times on this trip when I just want to sit in it.

You know that feeling, when the wind is surrounding you? It's not coming from the left, the right, front or back; it's encompassing you somehow. When I feel that, I simply think of God wrapping His mighty arms around me and caressing me. Because, the wind isn't rough when it surrounds me, it is gentle yet firm. Like being held tenderly yet tightly in someone's embrace. I know God can use other people to touch me and show me His love but I feel like sometimes, He just wants to touch me Himself.

I can't help but want to feel God in a more physical way sometimes. Actually climb up into His lap, feel His arms fold me in His safe embrace. Sometimes, I am able to feel this with Him, feel like I am physically with Him.

 However, if there are times that I don't, I am able to see Him in this world He has placed us in- and one of the easiest ways is in nature. I love looking around and seeing how God expresses Himself to us in nature: seeing His solidity and strength in the mountains, His gracefulness in the waves, His creativity in the sky...

And so, even though I sometimes can't feel like I'm with God physically, I cannot deny that He still chooses to show Himself to me through the physical world.