There she is... Miss America

I am watching Miss America's Reality Check on TLC tonight. I'm sitting here thinking "I know Miss Connecticut." Then I chuckle to myself and think, "I know the last five Miss Connecticuts and two years ago I was there in Las Vegas at the Pageant rooting on Diana Baitinger, Miss Connecticut 2005. How did I get so lucky?"

Miss America was larger than life when I was growing up. I remember watching it on television with Bert Parks and being fascinated with the most beautiful women in the world. I thought these women were untouchable. The truth is that I felt the same way the first time I met a group of them competing for the crown of Miss Connecticut back in 2002.

I was drafted by the Executive Director of the program to be a chauffeur for the contestants. Every day during pageant week I helped transport the girls back and forth between the dorms at Connecticut College and the Garde Arts Theater. I discovered that these young women were very approachable. They were real. That's been my experience ever since.

It got me thinking about God. A lot of people think of God as being like one of those mythological beings from our childhood. They view Him as distant and living on the Mountaintop. To them God is unapproachable. The Good News is that God rejected that image a long time ago. To know God is to love Him. He wants to be part of our every day life. He wants to let us know how much he loves us. He is as real and down to earth as those contestants we see in the Miss America Pageant, maybe even more so.

So if you don't know God, then why don't pause and say a prayer and then begin looking around you. He'll find you. He always does. God bless.

Cal


P.S. Dana Daunis is Miss Connecticut 2007 and she left for the pageant this week. She will be competing in Las Vegas and have to do a personal interview with a panel of judges, share her talent (she sings beautifully) and be judged by how she carries herself in an evening gown and in a bathing suit. On Saturday, January 26 the final night of competition will be aired on TLC (Channel 33 with Comcast in Norwich) at 8:00m p.m.

Here is the important part: They have added an audience participation component this year. You can vote for your favorite contestant and this will factor into the final decision as to who will be Miss America. So go to tlc.com/missamerica/and vote for Dana (or your favorite contestant - vote for Dana) Thanks.