LIVING WITH A PSALMIST

Sweet Zoe Girl is 5 weeks old now. We think she's turned a corner. She loves to live with her eyes wide open these days, where before, she slept, which was just as beautiful to us. She is still a baby, and she still has her moments of fussyness. We'd hate it if she didn't -- it's her only way to communicate to us, and we Carrolls are ALL ABOUT communication. Talking, laughing, crying, wishing...we love to be together, to learn from and with one another, and to discover time after time who it is we are becoming together. Living with Zoe is like living with a psalmist -- every day we are confronted with the most haunting of human emotion, and the most life-giving praise. In her own childlike way she cries, "How long, O Lord?"; she sings, "Who are we that you, O God, are mindful of us?"; she whispers, "Yea, though I walk...thou art with me." If we were to listen closely enough, we may even hear the sounds of the tickling of harp strings and a gentle swinging of a tambourine. As Kendra makes me a better man, husband, pastor, and father, so Zoe makes us better parents, partners, and children of God. She tells us that it's OK to cry, it's OK to be still, it's OK to rest and to live with your eyes open to the beauty of God's many good gifts, some of which are so overwhelmingly lovely that the only appropriate response is to weep at the sight of them.

Who are we, indeed, that you are mindful of us, O God -- mindful enough to entrust her to us and to show us your face through hers? We are silenced by our deafening gratitude.