At the age of seven I went on one of the most influential adventures of my life. My family moved from the suburbs of south Florida’s east coast to north Florida’s middle of nowhere. Trees, dirt (or sugar sand), wild animals, farm animals, and forts consumed most of my siblings’ and I’s days. We saw our breath in cold air for the first time and loved getting to play outside even before our parents woke up in the morning.

One morning while out exploring I witnessed what I thought would be another great miracle, like when Our Lady of Lourdes appeared to Bernadette and healing water pooled from the ground. In pure astonishment and excitement I ran towards the house alerting everyone with the cry, “It’s a MIRACLE!” While I ran into the house with the repeated proclamation on my lips, My mother came to see what the commotion was about.

Upon hearing that I had witnessed water bubbling up from the ground while I walked her out to witness the wonder of the Blessed Virgin’s puddling water, my mother turned to me and explained that the previous owners did not correctly hook up the washer machine drainage to the septic tank and I was merely looking at laundry water.

The blind faith of a child is beautiful and quite hilarious. I think I have always been inclined to be awed by God and often still jump to give Him credit, granted I now usually give the credit where it is due. Growing up I always studied sciences with far more interest than other subjects because they all seemed to praise the Creator and His complexity the more in-depth I studied each topic.

While I will likely always be a little suspicious of water bubbling out of the ground, I hope to always be ready to praise God for His Glorious works!

J.M.J.