The colors, swirling, dancing, singing, whispering, shouting, jumping, gliding--were His idea.

With a command, He made light burst upon the world. He filled the earth with life, with color, with song. He created tiny, delicate, hopeful sprouts and tall, mighty, robust oaks. He put the stripes on the bumblebee and the spots on the leopard, the teeth in the mouth of the shark and the proboscis in the mouth of the butterfly. Hummingbirds flit through the air because He created them to. Hippos lazily clomp into the water to bathe because He told them to.

The crisp taste of autumn air is a taste of His creation. The crystal raindrops that fall on your windowpane at night are His art. The delicate cerulean sky comes from Him. He shapes the majestic, billowing clouds right before a thunderstorm, and He clears the sky for summer picnics and bike rides and swimming. Water itself was His idea: the way it moves, the way we move in it, the way the fish swim and the sea turtles glide, all were His ideas.

He created joy and love, the bubbling laughter of children and the hearty laughter of grandparents, the moments that make us want to leap for joy and the moments that make us want to stand in awe. He created love, the kind of love that brings two people together.

Everything in our life, everything we've ever seen or felt or heard or experienced or hoped or dreamed--it's all His creation, and it all comes from Him.

He's all-powerful.

And He knows who I am.

And He listens to me.

And He loves me. He hurts when others hurt me, and one day, in heaven, He'll wipe every tear from my eye and wrap me up in His arms.

And He knows who you are.

And He listens to you.

And He loves you, too.