Whispering through Eternity

Suddenly I felt like my entire life was insignificant. I was standing near the edge of what, to me, appeared to be the end of the earth and the beginning of something else...could it be heaven?

I stood in awe, silent and reverent, humbled by the magnificence that surrounded me. I was so small. What purpose could I have on this big beautiful world? What significance were all those worries I had earlier today. So what if my mother lost her wedding ring yesterday. So what if my purse ripped today. So what if my wallet ran out of cash. I had the sudden urge to throw it all...everything...right over the edge. For what meaning did it have? Next to everything else, what was the point?

The wind picked up and lifted my hair from my shoulders, cooling my neck and brushing the heat from my forehead. I closed my eyes and breathed in the clean dusty scent wafting into my face and something within me began to glow. Tears sprang to my eyes before I could stop them and I didn't feel insignificant anymore.

Then I recalled the words my grandmother once told me when I was a little girl playing in her back yard. "Sweetheart, can you find the smallest pebble at your feet?" When I retrieved the speck in my palm, she looked at it with her big sparkling blue eyes ---her eyes always had so much more animation then expected from a withering old woman--- and she smiled. "This pebble is tiny. The world is so big. But would you believe that this very speck had the purpose of resting at your feet at this very moment for you to pick up and hold in your little hand? God is very aware of this little speck." Then, she took both my hands in hers and looked into my face in urgency. "You are His daughter. He loves you. You can do great things."

As her words were whispered in the wind at this moment while I stood at the edge of the earth looking out into the dusty beauty that seemed to go on for eternity, I felt its truthfulness inside me. Brushing the tears from my cheeks, I turned back with a last glance to the wind and whispered back, "Thank you, Grandma."