Where is He?

Saturday morning and I’m up at 4:22. I took the dogs for their walk, after first waking them up, made some coffee, retrieved the paper, and now I am sitting here, talking to you.

There just is an incredible peace this time of day. The air, here in Phoenix, is still cool to the touch. Another week and you will feel like you just stepped in to a L.A. Fitness sauna. Sure, New York has high humidity with a medium temp, but we have medium humidity with surface of the sun temps and we all know both of those still beats a Buffalo winter.

Still, this time of day, about an hour or so before the sun comes up, is a place I would like to live all the time. The colors of life, you find at no other time during the day. The birds are waking, the streets are quiet, and all in all, peace lives here. I can think here. There isn’t a lot to worry about, not yet. The dogs sleeping on my feet, fresh from their run and ball throwing, aren’t even hungry, not for another hour. They just want their master to settle back in so they can go find their sweet spot again on the dog bed.

If you find your life searching for a Higher Being, you would find that search starting here. I ran in to God twice, both times, it was the early hours of a new day. If you believe in such a thing as God then you know He doesn’t roll in with Pomp and Circumstance—ever. If you’re looking for god, chances are, at least in my mind, you won’t find Him.

Why? Because what we want to find and what we need to find are usually two dramatically different things. You will always find what you want to find, painted and shiny, and all bedazzled. If you are looking for god, you will always find—something.

You see, you don’t have to look for God, He’s just there, right there, right at your shoulder. He is never anywhere else.

He waits. He loves watching and listening. He loves the sound of our voices and the way we move, especially when we dance and we think no one is watching. He loves that. I can never disappoint him-ever.

He is patient. He decides when to make his presence known, maybe during the hotteste day ever during a wire-tap surveillance on a contract killer’s home, or in the words of a Dave Matthews song. I’m just saying.

My experience with Him leads me to believe God loves Dave Matthews.

Both times, God also loved the pre-dawn. I’m not saying He doesn’t show up during a child’s birthday party or a father’s critical surgery. I’m not saying He isn’t there when you are in pain or full of laughter in the middle of the afternoon or evening. He is there for all of that. But to actually feel Him in your core, walking with you, sitting with you, those times, at least for me, are rare. I’m glad they are. I never want the neighbor’s grass, so green when I first saw on the other side of the fence, to ever just be green grass that needs to be mowed. You following me?

So, this morning, Betty, my three year old lab/border collie, just came in and put her head on my lap and burped her breakfast. Apparently, the sweet spot could wait until after some Purina. She wants me to scratch her nose. June, her one year old sister by adoption, is outside and can be seen through the window eating something the neighbor’s cat surely buried. The sun hasn’t come up yet, but peace reigns here. Oh, for it to linger a while longer.

At least until Dave Matthews’ album is done playing.