Yup. Colorado.
We have no family in Colorado, in fact no one in my family had even been to Colorado. So why did we decide to up and move here? No one can really tell you why.
The only thing bringing us to Colorado was some unexplainable pull my dad felt a to come here, then everything seemed to fall into place. We spent our last week in Texas living in a hotel and packing up and wrapping up the remains of our life there and researching a bit about Colorado. My mom and my sister got job interviews lined up almost immediately and we fell in love with a house for rent in a small town.
I was filled with a sense of new beginnings and hope and excitement for all that was to come.
Three weeks after the hurricane forced us to abandon our home, my family of eight set out on the 15 hour drive to Colorado to start a new life. The drive was tiring and stressful; everyone was on edge. We stopped halfway and spent the night in a hotel in Amarillo then started out again early the next morning.
Driving into Colorado for the first time brought breathtaking views of the mountains. Suddenly I felt small. I knew this is where I was supposed to be, becoming part of a bigger world, expanding my reach. The feeling was incredible; it felt like home.
Our first task was to find a home, so day one we set out to go look at houses. On our way to look at the very first house, we spotted a church hidden in the mountain and decided to check it out.
It was a Catholic Church called St. Francis of Assisi and immediately I was amazed. As we got out of the car to explore, I was over whelmed by the Holy Spirit. It had been no coincidence that we had come across this Church, God had led us straight there. The next thing I saw brought me to tears.
Jesus was there, quite literally, opening his arms to me, showing me the beautiful Colorado.
I had to sit down. I had never felt God so strongly, so closely with me. I stopped right there, kneeled down and prayed of thanksgiving.
As we continued exploring this gorgeous Church, I came across a sign on a rock. God spoke to me through that rock. God said, “I have moved mountains to bring you here. This is where you are supposed to be.”
With a new found sense of peace, we continued our house searching. Initially, it was not going well, so we rented out a log cabin 14 miles up on a mountain in the middle of the woods. We stayed there for a few days, enjoying family adventures, home cooked meals and warm beds. It was astounding.
Then Sunday rolled around. That beautiful Church we had found was a couple hours away from our cabin in the woods, so we decided against venturing out there. Instead we did something out of the ordinary, in fact it was quite odd.
We held our own “Mass.”
Now, of course, it was not an official, traditional ceremony, however, it was one of the moving services I had ever attended. We googled the readings and Gospel for that Sunday then gathered around the fire pit outside, since it was a beautiful morning and we thought it only fitting we take in all the beauty our Lord had made.
I played worship music on my speaker as we all settled down and prepared our hearts for “Mass.” Then we recited the confiteor then each of us read a reading, here is where it started to get emotional. Each reading, including the Gospel, spoke directly to the situation we were in and brought every single one of us to tears. In place of the homily, each of us spoke on how we interpreted the readings. We ended in prayer and closed with more worship music. Like I said, one of the best services I had ever attended. There was no denying that the Holy Spirit had gathered there with us, making God present at our un-traditional “Mass.”
Shortly after that, we found our new home. Much closer to the Church we originally fell in love with, we discovered a house built for our large family. Inside it was a sign left by the previous owner. Again, this sign was no coincidence, rather it was God speaking to us, showing us, this is where we are supposed to be.
I now write to you from inside my new home in Colorado where I could not be happier and more at peace.
