Once upon a time I believed that in a yard full of three-leaf clovers there would be at least one four leaf clover.
I believed that I could find it if I just tried. Despite the lawn mower trimming them all down, despite the surplus of them.
Once upon a time, I considered that the thousands, if not millions of three-leaf clovers were a blessing. For the more of them there were, the higher the chances of finding the one four-leaf clover.
I believed. I trusted an inner knowing.
It was more of a promise whispered in my heart. If I looked for it, it would be there. It might take a long time, but I would go and find it before the lawn mower was done it's job.
I mused aloud. My mother shook her head. Attempting at discouraging such a thought.
"You don't just go and find one. And they are all three-leaf clover. You know that."
I knew that, but I also knew something deeper.
That my faith in that one clover was bigger than a worldly truth.
So I looked. With the lawn mower gaining ground on it's already cut grass. I started in the uncut portions. I sat and looked at each clover one by one.
I don't know how long I sat there. I don't remember.
But I do remember finding my four leaf clover. The one I knew that was promised to me.
My sass has never left me and I admit I was proud to prove my mom wrong. That I found one and I knew it all along.
She was floored. She dropped what she was doing and called her mother, she recalled that story many times to anyone who would listen. She celebrated with me. Over this promise I found.
And that is the thing with our faith. It just has to be bigger than what we already know.
And when God whispers a promise in your ear, you don't gaff at it, you listen. You let yourself fill up with excitement and you dare to believe that this incredulous faith is all it takes for that promise to be fulfilled.
There are promises that may not be fulfilled in our time, ones that create an ache in our spirits we are not capable of understanding.
What is important, is not that we see every promise / hope that we have fulfilled, but that we live our lives with a faith that is hope filled, joy filled and grace filled.