The Father Moves Among Us

ERNIE MAIPID, JR

I am counting days to my 72nd year and my heart is overflowing with thankfulness as I look at how the Father has wonderfully made each day speak of His Holy Presence. This to me is the crown of our daily experience of Family. HE is there in every thought. HE is there in every hope. HE makes every connection meaningful.

Of course, my grateful heart acknowledges the beginnings of prayer in my life with the tutelage of a mother who breathes prayer and witnesses it. Today, my daily plea is for the Father to reveal that Presence in every circumstance of the day. It excites me looking forward to every discovery of His magnanimous response. I pray for each family member, my wife, three children, their spouses and my grandchildren to encounter this daily blessing and find FULNESS in it.

I am prayerfully recollecting how the last three (3) years had been since we gave up renting a townhouse in Manila. That home where we had stayed had seen the richness of our growing our three (3) children, now all married giving us a new generation of eight (8) grandchildren.  They spell Hope, so real to my wife, Gigi and myself.

Having chosen to raise their families all together in Brisbane, Australia, we too had left to savor the fullness of daily experiencing family interaction, where we move houses monthly so as not to miss the fast growing up of the little ones.

In the last 25 days since our recent arrival, conversations and moments such as these have highlighted precious remembrances:

At breakfast table with Karl’s four (4) girls, I throw a question, ‘Five (5) years from now, on this same table sharing a morning meal, how old will you be and what will our exchanges be like?’

Our eldest granddaughter, Nala, intimates that at 18, she sees herself having finished secondary school and caring for babies in a daycare while tackling university life.

Meanwhile, Andres, (Paolo’s second and the Maipid name bearer) and I have a heart-to-heart exchange on why he should forgive his Papa for missed father and son interaction nights, as his Papa made himself available to help his brother move to a new home.

And then, there’s five year old Caelan who insists he too has prayer intentions to share in our nightly family rosary online, even as his mother, Camina, our youngest, coaches his reciting the Holy Marys of a decade.

Family… and more of it, even as the Spirit leads us to share thoughts and realizations on how the Father makes His daily presence among us felt in simple conversations.

I intimate to Steph, our daughter-in-law how in their last three (3) years of settling family, God has, in ‘the wink of an eye’, provided for their daughters growing up, all four (4) in school, taking us all aback with wisdom and maturity in their youth – how God has  been quietly faithful in every way.

On their 13th anniversary, I write Paolo and wife, Audrey:

‘God had awesomely gifted your union with two beautiful children in Aria & Andres! Together with you, FAMILY has been defined.

And HOME happens! With all your hearts aligned to GOODNESS & GLADNESS, there can only be FULNESS OF LOVE!’

And taking note of Camina’s enjoying every moment of her marriage to Jai and motherhood to their two sons, I smile gratefully as I vividly recall how she powerfully cheers her son ‘Hep, hep, Hurray!’ after the classmates and cousins sing him the birthday song. Not to mention her having given her all to organizing a party down to picture-taking and getting him gifts.

My heart is full, as I ponder the Lord’s goodness of heart!

God’s instruction was for all creation to live and love as family. God enacted family through the first Christmas. We are all called to preserve family through the ages. God’s Kingdom on earth comes by family. It will forever be!