Mondays are both Ava day and Sabbath for me. I love it because it means that I no longer have Monday on my calender…Sunday, Ava-day, Tuesday, Wednesday…

We do a couple of things together every Monday. Eat delicious food, take a nap, go to the grocery store to pick up food for dinner (and flowers for Jac) and go on a hike that has to have a summit. A couple weeks ago, we were on our Sabbath-hike, an opportunity for the two of us to step back and savor the beauty and completeness of God, when it suddenly started to rain. It was cold, windy, and raining and I felt my heart rate increase at the thought of Ava and how stressed out she must have been.

But she didn’t make a sound.

I soon realized that she had curled herself as tightly as possible in the Sherpani and as close to me as she could get and had fallen asleep. She was literally sleeping through the storm in the middle of nowhere.

She slept because she was with her Daddy. She slept because she knew that as long as she was close to me, she’d be fine.

Knowing that put her at peace…so she slept.

Usually on our Sabbath hikes, I’m captivated by the views and by listening to my little girl discover the world around her. She squeaks and points when she sees a squirrel or a deer. She follows the flight of the birds and trys to talk them into landing on her outstretched arm.

On this particular hike, I was lulled into worship by her serenity, the internal tranquility in the midst of the external cold storm.

She was close to her daddy.

My experience is the same…there is something about being held by the Father that puts me at peace. There is something about listening to His heartbeat in the midst of storms that tells me that as long as I am curled up next to Him, I’ll be fine.