I CAN HEAR GOD
And she’s off! Maggie hops on her two-wheeler, and begins her daily mad dash to her special place.
It’s summer vacation. This year, Maggie’s world expanded beyond her own neighborhood into the great wide open.
Maggie can cross streets (as long as they are not the busy ones). She takes this responsibility very seriously. Look both ways before crossing, safety first.
Maggie is what’s known as a precocious child. She’s wise beyond her years. Even though she looks like a little girl – there are times you would swear she’s an adult in a very small body.
It is with this delightful mix of adult sensibilities and childlike wonder that Maggie came up with the idea for her daily bike ride.
Now, Maggie’s Mom is a very sensible kind of woman. She always gives Maggie room to explore, a chance to do what she needs to do, and the freedom to be who she is destined to be.
But even Mrs. Marvel had to think that a young child like Maggie needs some grown up supervision every now and again. Was she wrong? You be the judge.
It was a semi-sunny afternoon in early July. Momma Marvel decided it was time to find out exactly where Maggie was going every day on her bicycle. And she wanted to know what the doodly-do she was doing once she arrived there.
So she packed up the baby, put him in his car seat, got the car engine started, and oh so discreetly followed her daring daughter at a comfortable distance.
The Marvels live in a typical suburb in a typical town. Mostly there are two-story houses with beige, gray, or occasionally blue sided exteriors with a token smattering of bricks on the front under a picture window.
The houses are neatly organized in cul-de-sacs, all with sidewalks crisscrossing the double driveways that lead up to the two car garages. Each cul-de-sac sidewalk connects to the intersection sidewalk and all the sidewalks are wide enough to accommodate a little girl riding her bike with moderate speed.
Maggie’s destination was at the edge of this suburban sub-division. Undeveloped land stood waiting for her. The large field of unmown prairie grass is filled with weeds and sad skinny trees that never reached their potential. To most people it is an eyesore. But not to Maggie, it is beautiful and it’s quiet.
She got off her bike and walked it carefully through tall grass, picking up twigs and clearing the occasional tree branch out of her way. She looked up, she looked down, she looked straight ahead and never behind her.
Momma Marvel observed all this from her car which she parked across the street. She rolled down the window to get a better view but there was really not too much to see. Only Maggie sitting, standing, and walking around nature’s suburban spot.
She stayed about 20 minutes which was all she could squeeze out of the day with a little baby in tow who was warming up for a fussy spell.
When Maggie got home two hours later, it dawned on Mrs. Marvel to talk to Maggie about her odd daily practice. “Why haven’t I asked her before?” she wondered? “Beats me” she answered herself.
“Maggie dear, I was with the baby in the car while you were out riding your bike today. I saw you over at the open field outside of the entrance to Clearwater Lakes. What do you do there every day?”
Maggie said “I’m talking to God, Mommy, we are having the most interesting conversations.”
Her Mom replied, “Why, you know Maggie, you can talk to God anywhere. Everywhere actually. He will hear you. God is all around us, always with us.”
I know all that Mommy. But it’s soooo quiet when I’m in the field. There’s no noise in my head. There’s no sounds around me. There’s nothing but the sky up above, the ground at my feet, and God in my whole heart. I know God can hear me wherever I am. But I found a special place where I can hear God.”
By Susan Diamond
READ MORE Maggie Stories