God smiled on Provo recently, with his little rainbow mouth, which was not a frown, it was His smile as He looked down from Heaven. There were still lingering rain clouds, all rumbly and purply pretty crashing up against Y mountain which had broken out in a firestorm of autumn color that God’s rainbow smile ever-so-nicely framed. As I walked back up to campus, I rubbed some of the magenta into my fingers from the once green leaves, and tried to decide if green turned into this particular shade of pink only because Heavenly Father really really loves human beings despite all of our serious flaws.

If there is one thing I have learned this year, it’s that God loves Provo. And Ireland: I saw it in the Cliffs of Moher, these huge cliffs of green that drop into the raging grey of the Irish sea. And he loves France: Ever seen the Eiffel Tower? God made that by giving people the hands to make it. And God loves Ithaca, New York. There are waterfalls there, and I bet he likes all the liberals there too. And he loves Jamaica, so he made it be full of nice, relaxed people that get to enjoy humidity and perfect weather all the time. And he loves Mexico. And Germany. And even little countries like Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands. God loves those too.

And God loves me. I know it because he made the color green. And green leaves that turn into magenta.