For those who know Ayla and her life-long friend, Gato, you may have read in yesterday’s post about her favorite animal having been lost for three days and known the grief she must have been feeling.

Forget her! I have put more hours looking for that cat than I can count, run up and down miles of stairs to make sure she’s in the arms of the girl I love, broken up hundreds of fights between friends who all want Gato (out of all the animals in the basket!) and even exchanged motherhood stories with Ayla about what our sweethearts (babies) have been getting into lately. I’m more than a little invested in that piece of cloth (and my daughter’s heart), so when she is missing, I grieve too! Is that crazy?

You know, I think this reveals a piece of our Father’s tender heart for us and the world He created. In Luke 12:6, Jesus says that even a handful of sparrows, which would sell for a pocket full of change, don’t go unnoticed by His Father.

So last night, when I put Ayla to bed, we prayed that we could find Gato. Today, we found her! I know it’s just a stuffed animal, but she’s special to my special one’s heart, and I treasure it as a loving gesture from our Father and continue to pray for more moments like this as she discovers who He is for herself. I know it’s a reminder to me to bring even the seemingly smallest problems to Him. Even the sparrows.