Crystal clear

I've never been good at finding things.

I remember my father giving me the use-your-eyes-not-your-mouth lectures whenever he'd ask me to get him something, and I wouldn't be able to because I couldn't find it. Then, he'd look for it himself, and would clearly demonstrate that through silent searching, one could find what one is looking for.

My Bio 11 laboratory activity therefore comes to mind.

The class was asked to find all the crystals in the cell's vacuole. I chose the Begonia stem. I did a cross section of the stem, mounted it on the slide, placed a cover slip on the sample, and poked my tired, bespectacled eyes through the microscope. The sample looked amazing under the LPO: the compartments called cells were clearly visible, even the vacuoles where those crystals could be found. But the problem was when I had to focus it under HPO to create a greater magnification of the sample. The image I saw was darker, and while there were things that looked prominent enough, I didn't think they were the crystals. They didn't look like the ones Miss Sumugat had drawn on the blackboard. I tried looking at the other parts of the specimen. I couldn't see the crystals.

Time passed rather quickly, which almost always happens whenever you're doing something under pressure. You have to get it done before the instructor tells you it's over. Time's up. And when you think you're about to find it, you realize that there is no time.

I was praying all the time. "Lord, help me find it." But the Lord gave me a slightly different answer. It's a timeless reminder for people who seek to find something. Sometimes, the things we're looking for can never be found because they're never there. But that doesn't mean that they do not exist.

I've never been good at finding God, but He has always been the best in finding me.