It was a shiny, bright morning. I had just seen the light slowly brighten from the dark night to early morning. The sun had splashes of pink and orange. The closer you looked, the more the colors disappeared. The clouds moved along with me through the window. We had arrived. I stepped foot outside to the ground. I was too short to instantly feel the ground floor, so my feet dangled until my toes hit the pavement. I felt the humid moist air all around me as if I was wrapped in a blanket filled with water. I soon saw her step out the door that was way taller than her, so she swooped underneath. My reflexes made me start to run with the joy to make your face hurt. I finally reached her loving, warm arms that grabbed me like a hot summer day. I was safe in my gentle grandmother’s embrace.

            After the regular talk between my mom and grandma that took years, she finally motioned for us to enter. I looked back to make sure my mom was still there, and she smiled at me so much I wondered when I would have teeth like hers. I had always been called toothless because I pulled all my front four teeth on the top row. As I saw her come closer to me, I knew she was going to tell me she had to leave for work now. I had always been prepared but there was no hiding my sad wondering face of why she always must leave me for this so-called “work”. She rubbed me on the shoulder, so my shirt scrunched up a bit for her to then look at me with a gaze I already knew. We both said our goodbyes and she swiftly walked away. Her tiny white car’s wheels swerved a bit to the left to then do a complete turn to the right so she could drive away. I wasn’t as sad that she left anymore because of course I could smell that undeniable odor of a warm meal that I can only get with Aya. I knew immediately that she had made my favorite arros con pollo which was very regular for her to make.

            I quickly made my way to the table where I knew I would soon get yelled at for my “improper manners”. She put the food on my plate, but she didn’t realize her biggest mistake when giving me food. I looked at my plate and once I saw the food touching, I refused to eat it. No matter how much I liked it separately there was no way I would eat that together. Finally, she gave me a new plate so I would eat it. I took the first bite, and it was just as I remembered it felt safe, I thought in my head of how crazy it is to link food to certain people and think it was safe but in that moment, I remembered all the memories in this house with this food and my grandma. I took a few more bites but still as being my picky nine-year-old self, I was full, and I felt as if I would start to roll. I now decided to stand after my grandma took my plate. She told me to rest so I wouldn’t be tired. I thought of all the fun games we could play once I woke up, but little did I know it would be way better than some games because soon she would teach me the greatest lessons of all time.

              I got up and walked to Grandma’s room to lie down with bare feet that could feel the cold ground that sent a shiver straight through me. I reached her room with the door frame filled with scratches and paint peeling off so much you could see the old white color walls underneath the now pink walls. I took a step and entered the room that smelled like vanilla. It was a good smell but for me, it was too much, so I plugged my nose. I jumped onto her bed which had red covers and felt like sandpaper on my skin. I never liked those covers she had, they were far too dull for me and my unique taste. I quickly grabbed an edge of the cover that was now all clustered in my hand so I felt the tight grip I had, and I pulled will all my strength, so I didn’t have to see those covers ever again. Once the covers flew off, I jumped in her bed so tired my eyes felt like I was carrying a million pounds. Just as soon as I lay down my desire to sleep went away. Now all I wanted to do was grab that phone just a couple of feet away. I tried to fight the urge and just go to sleep but now all I could think of was that gold phone with a clear case that only held a raffle ticket from an event weeks ago. I couldn’t fight it anymore, so I darted up and picked up the phone. I had a new ray of energy as I clasped this block of glass. I could feel the thick case with only a few indents so you could fix the volume or turn it off. I soon felt the guilt creeping through me, so I simply dropped the phone again and turned around.

            I now took great curiosity into this wall I was looking at; it was simple but when you really took your time to look, you saw all the work in it. I thought of how people build these walls and at the time I had no clue how walls were made but I knew someone created it, so I admired it. I saw the crease in where the wall bended forming this shape of a room all around me. As I kept looking, I saw this sort of bump all around the wall, but it was evenly spread out through the room. These bumps looked grainy and rough as if you touched it, you would immediately think how rough it was. The bump sort of made the wall more appealing as to how it drew my attention and I tried to focus my eyes on a certain bump just so I could imagine how it would feel to touch. It looked as if in the way of a country or land area of sorts because none of these bumps were the same, yet they all matched so perfectly. I tried to look at other bumps, but something caught my vision, so I looked straight at it. This sort of barrier of all these bumps went all around the top of the walls in the room as a square. It looked carved because of the many swirls in each part of the frame. This part of the walls was different. It looked smooth even with these curves and swirls you could tell it sort of looked shiny and slick. In my head it felt like such a short time I had been thinking of these walls but then my grandma walks in and normally she waits an hour to wake me. Who knew your thoughts could cause such loss in time.
I turned back around now facing her, but now she had a sort of big book with shiny silver pages that looked thin from the top. The book read on the front Holy Bible and so I was trying to think where this book could be from, but I didn’t remember anything related to holy bible. I had seen bibles before but never one so big with such thin pages and I thought of how supposedly this one was holy. Just as quick as she entered, she already had my attention because this looked interesting.

            Aya motioned for me to stand up, with her hand that rose from her side straight to the door. As she held the door I sprang up. I felt the bed sink a second before I had jumped and felt my heartbeat skip as now, I had this newfound energy when I saw that book and knew we would read a story. Whenever she read to me, the stories were always interesting so I was very excited to see how this intriguing story would start. Now we both walked to the guest room, and I looked down as I walked but the first thing, I noticed was big crack in her tile floors. I wondered what had happened to make that. I then thought what if it was me who did that, but I simply don’t remember. I got so distracted in my thoughts, that I didn’t realize I had completely stopped, and my grandmother was waiting for me to keep going with her. In less than a second I looked straight ahead and kept walking one foot at a time. In the guest room was another bed and we both sat down on these covers. I wanted to be comfortable during this story, so I got my furry pink blanket right next to the bed on the nightstand. The blanket felt cold and soft just how I wanted. This is the first time I saw this joy in my grandma’s eyes. I had seen her be happy and I thought I had seen when she was in her favorite places, but I had never seen her be so passionate to read a book.

             She took the book in hand and flipped to the very first page that had so many names of different stories with numbers so you could turn to read them. Aya soon said, “Stephanie, I want you to be serious. Now this book is very special to me, and I hope one day it will be to you too.”
I thought in my head before speaking, how is a book so special to her. Maybe these names of stories were each written by special people she has known, and this was her last tokens to remember them all. Just as quickly as my thoughts came, they vanished so I could speak, “Grandma I am ready. I promise I will be serious.”

             She grinned at me, so I understood she was ready to tell me about this story. The first thing she did was turn to a marked page in the back of the book. I couldn’t hear over my loud thoughts and my beating heart that sounded through my head as I waited for this magnificent story. In the background of my head, I heard this sentence that sounded like a command and went something along the lines of how we should trust in Him. I was thinking I missed who “him” was, but I never heard her explain who it was, so I asked her, “who is him?”

              Aya looked at me gently and laughed a little. “Oh, Stephanie, I forgot you don’t know the whole story. Him is God. He is the God of the universe who created everything you see, and He even created you. That is why we are all so very different He made us all uniquely and He knows everything about us. This God is a very loving one and the only one.”

              It was all so much to take in. We went from talking about a certain him, but He turns out to be my maker and He made all this around me. Many thoughts ran through my head. Why can’t you see Him, why didn’t I know about Him, why did He make me specifically, and how did He do all these things?  My face had an expression of confusion as I tried to understand this all.

         Aya had read my thoughts she immediately looked at me and put her cold smooth hands that smelt like lavender on my arm and said, “I know this is all lot to take in and you have many questions, but I will answer them all in the best way I know how to. I am going to read you verses from all chapters and we can go through how the world is what today. You see you just must be patient. God is real is all you need to know and remember while I read these verses. It is fine to not understand them, but I can go through it detailed for you.”

           Now even more thoughts ran through my head so I took a deep breath and tried to listen as best as I could. My hands were twirling with each other as my fingers anxiously moved all around my hand, as if they were dancing. My hands were rough and as I moved my fingers. All I wanted to do was read this book now. I stood up straight, so my back cracked, and my eyes darted to look back at the book. I was more ready to hear this then to go play games.

          After she had read verses from almost every book, I was shocked, and I didn’t know how to react. I looked down so she wouldn’t see my blank expression as I tried to process everything that she had said. While I was looking down, I saw a scratch on me that started to slowly bleed. This looked like a line straight across my knee that opened ever so slightly. The blood was pure red and came out of this pinkish scratch that started to look even worse as it turned purple. I looked to my fingers and saw one of my nails had a little blood on it I guess while I was listening to the scripture, I had not even realized I was digging into my skin. I had felt my knee burn while she was reading but it sort of felt just like a gush of wind that soon went away. I didn’t want to tell my grandma because then she would inspect it and make me clean it, but I just wanted to learn more about God. So far, what I had learned was that God sent His only son to die for each and every one of our sins so we could live with him peacefully. If a God like that so loving and protective existed, I knew I would find out everything about Him. I slowly brought my head up so that in the blink I took when I opened my eyes, I was back up straight, and I was prepared to hear all the ways to apply this to our lives.

               Aya had readjusted her hands on the book, so her pinky was under the bottom of the spine and her thumb was somewhere on the middle of the page while the rest of her hand supported the back. She tucked her hair behind her ear as she was ready to say something, before I even got a minute to understand all that happened. Just as her mouth opened to speak, she quickly shut her mouth and looked directly at me. “Do you mind if we stop reading for a second just so I can explain it all to you?”

            Little did she know, that is what I had been wanting, I had just been waiting for a pause to ask my thousands of questions and to hear all the answers she could give me. I wanted to know everything, but I knew I had to be patient. Here it was the perfect time to finally say my thoughts out loud. I looked into her eyes that looked gentle and sweet they were brown but to me they reminded me of little chocolate kisses, and it explained her so well. Her eyes displayed all the kindness and love she held in her heart. I then said, “Of course grandma, we can take a break to talk about everything. I would love nothing more.”

                Aya knew then that she had made the correct choice in telling me so very soon about this very necessary topic. I acted immature normally but she knew me more than anyone so she knew I could handle this and give it the attention it deserves. She smiled a very light smile as if not wanting to express all the emotions she was feeling about this. We both knew my life would never be the same, I would now see God and His perfection everywhere I went. Even looking at her I thought of how God made all his creation different depending on what they would experience in life or struggle with. He knew everything about everyone before they even existed. I knew I had the brain of a tiny human but still the truth is a God chooses to love and care for us every day and He planned out and expected everything to happen. The most important thing though is that God sent His own son to die for us and not in general but for each of us He knew exactly how many people would be able to live with Him in heaven if he went through all challenges we have gone through or will go through.

                Now Aya placed the Bible down on the side of her. She looked very at peace as she said, “When I first learned about God, I thought many things, so I am going to give you answers for everything I think you are wondering now. God has always been here since the beginning of time, and He will be here forever. God made all of us for His purpose to gather His people and serve Him until Heaven is ready for us after God defeats Satan in the final war. He isn’t seen for reasons our human minds can’t comprehend so we must trust in Him along our journey with Him and there will be tough times, but we must know He exists. There are many other things I am sure you are questioning but just know God does all things uniquely and powerfully so we can’t understand his reasoning to do certain things, but we must believe in Him.”

            Soon after she said all this, I felt like I understood God and our lives with God. I felt a burst of excitement come through me and I knew that I was supposed to follow God. I responded to her with, “Aya thank you for explaining this to me. I finally know what I am supposed to do. Next time I come back can you help me set up plans to study the Bible and you can teach me more about God?”

           Aya stood up as she heard the doorbell go “ding ding.” I heard the bed squeak a little as she rose from the bed. She looked from the floor to me and smiled a light grin. Then she held her hands out where you could see every little twitch made as she waited for me. Then she said, “Stephanie of course I will help you more next time and explain even further but now your mom is here, so lets go.”

            I felt the emotion of sadness not quite the emotion that filled me when I had entered her house. I acted very energetic when I jumped up to be ready to go to my mother. I took a step with my right foot so then my left followed so after that step I was right next to my grandma. I moved my arms to wrap around her so we could give our last hug before I left. Now in my head it felt so short as we hugged for a minute. I said, “Goodbye grandma I love you, and will see you soon.”

            She looked at me as I went to run away and in the second, I looked back I heard her mumble, “Love you too and yes very soon.” Aya’s smile faded a bit when I was turning my head back and felt my hair bounce up and down.

         I was wearing Chapstick and so the hair wiped right against my face, and I felt the sticky ends of my hair go back into place. I felt the doorknob that made me get goosebumps from the cold touch of the metal. I grabbed the knob tightly so I could turn it to the right and heard the click so I could pull the door. Right as the door opened, I saw my mom standing there in her work scrubs that were blue and had tiny little rips on the bottom of her shirt. She took a step up the brick step to be leveled with the floor so she could walk evenly. I heard the clack of the heel in her boots that touched the floor gently but loud enough to make a noise. She opened her mouth to say, “Time to go Stephanie, I will help you with your bags and we can get back home.”

             Finally in my head I felt ready to go home because I knew I could tell my parents about everything I learned today and how I feel ready to start my journey with God. My mom and I grabbed my bag and blanket to bring to the car. I grabbed the blanket as my mom took the bag to bring to the little white car. She took her car keys out from her pocket, and she moved her thumb to press on the button to open the trunk. I heard the beep right as the trunk slowly started to open. I set my blanket to the very back of the trunk. I felt the blankets warmth slip out of my hands as I let it fall onto the carpeted surface. I moved back quickly so I could stand on my tip toes to reach the top of the trunk to pull it down. I touched the rim of the top of the trunk to secure my hand on the indent so I could tug the top down.

                    I walked towards the car door for the backseat with my head down and I replayed the whole day in my head and how I had to wait another week to see my grandma again. I gripped the door handle and pulled it out so the door popped open, and I could get into the car. I felt the slight burst of wind on my face from the force of opening the door and I ducked under the car’s roof to get into the seat. I now sat in this leather seat looking out the window and saw the landscape slowly drift away as my mom pulled out the driveway.

          Everything was quiet and peaceful in the car as I got lost in my thoughts and knew this day with my grandma was not a simple day but, an exciting one as I felt this change in me.