Along the shoreline of a beach surrounded by the tallest grass, where the waves pound into rocky walls and rain falls once every thousand years, there happened a miracle that put all the stars in the sky to shame.

With every large wave that reaches the rocks from underneath the sea, a million individual drops of water separate from their mother and fly into the sky, hanging in the breeze for a precious brief second before coasting back down on invisible wings, smiling and twirling and wishing such freedom could last forever. But too soon they return to their mother, joining millions of brothers and sisters with stories to share of birds and clouds and treetops. They will forever remember their short time in flight as their happiest moment in life.

One such droplet was especially lucky. As he left his family for his one chance to reach for the heavens, the first raindrops to fall in a thousand years left their own family in the sky. Faster and faster they fell, until the drop from the ocean could almost hear their laughter as they came closer. And then he saw what most oceandrops never even dream: the most beautiful raindrop the clouds had ever sculpted.

At that exact moment, the raindrop saw him as well. Such an excitable little thing he was, with a smile that told her, for the first time in her life, that she was loved.

But the call of the ocean is a demanding one, and when the oceandrops have had their fun, the mother summons every last one to return and share their stories with their brothers and sisters. The oceandrop could feel his mother's words tugging him back, and for a moment he felt afraid that he might never have the chance to meet the most beautiful raindrop in the world. To his left and right, oceandrops began falling back down toward the earth, laughing and shouting and playing in the breeze. But this oceandrop was not about to return willingly. With all his energy and strength, he stretched out his arms and called for the raindrop to join him. However, he steadily came to a stop, and began falling away from her.

Watching as the oceandrop slowly made its way back toward its home, the raindrop also felt afraid. This little oceandrop had shared nothing with her but a smile, and in that smile had offered her more than she had ever experienced. She couldn't let such a friend get away from her.

She pushed and pushed harder than she ever felt she could, falling faster than raindrops around her, faster than any raindrop had ever fallen. But then, no raindrop had ever felt the need to fall so fast. Closer and closer she came to her oceandrop, until his smile once again came into view. Maybe his smile was too far away for her to see until now, or maybe it was her coming closer and closer that brought his smile back. Either way, the sight of such a smile made her push even harder. Faster still she fell, until finally, in the greatest moment in the history of all oceandrops and all raindrops, they met with a splash that scattered a thousand tiny beads of water, each one laughing and shouting and playing in the breeze, falling down toward the ocean.

If you've ever seen a wave that crashes against the rocks, you know that oceandrops only spend a very short time in the air before returning to their mother. And if you've ever stood outside and watched the rain meet the ground, you know that the lifespan of a raindrop is very short indeed. So while this whole event took place in the time it takes your heart to beat four times, to the oceandrops and the raindrops, this event covered an entire lifetime. And in that lifetime, as a thousand water beads fell lightly over the surface of the ocean, if you could have been there, you would have witnessed a miracle that put all the stars in the sky to shame.

Because at that moment, on the beach under the falling rain, a baby girl was born.