Through her eyes

With the arrival of summer comes the return of our nightly family walk. It has been so hot here these past few days that we have been waiting until the sun sets to venture out. We usually follow the same route, one that has just enough of an incline to offer a good workout. Savannah is still a little small to walk that far or that fast, so we push her in an umbrella stroller.

Tonight as we walked along, a brisk wind sprang up and blew the warm summer air all around us. I was pushing the stroller up a hill, against the wind, concentrating only on getting to the top. Savannah was entertaining herself by singing (at the top of her lungs, I might add) "Deep and Wide".

"….there's a fountain flowing…deep and wiiiiide…." in a voice so pure, and that can only belong to a baby. She suddenly broke off in the midst of her rendition, and said, "Mama! Pretty flower! Wook!"

"Where, baby?" I looked but failed to see what had caught her eye.

"Wight heaw, Mama. Flower."

There were several huge cactus plants in a row, overgrown and not well-cared for. Buried deep between them was a splash of yellow where a few brave flowers lifted their heads. Nothing remarkable to anyone else looking at this landscape, but to my baby, they were pretty flowers worthy of her notice.

As we walked on, and as she once again burst out in song, I marveled at the innocence with which she views her world. And at how much she is teaching me. She didn't care that we were passing by strangers' homes, she kept right on singing her song about the overflowing love of Jesus. She didn't see the sad cacti, only the little bit of yellow sunshine.

Keep on singing, baby. And keep on seeing beauty in those places where others just hurry by.