Summer camping trips were a normal thing for me growing up. Typically, they would contain the following: tents, sleeping bags, cold uncomfortable nights, early mornings, ice chests, dirt, and always smelling like a campfire. I looked down on “campers” that used any kind of RV, laughing at the TV antennas, cozy chairs, etc. To camp should mean to suffer like me. Anyone who didn’t sleep with a tree root in their hip bone the night before was not truly camping.
Well, times have changed, and I have come to embrace the idea of camping with my family in our camp trailer! We enjoy time with friends and family, in places we stay every year, or in spots we discover together. Heat, air conditioning, a nice stove, mattresses and sheets, hot showers...its a small home away from home. Why does camping need to mean discomfort? While this may sound just a bit shallow, I would say that I definitely love going out into God’s country even more when I’ve got a comfy spot to come in from the cold and can enjoy playing a nice game of cards with my kids without getting pine needles and sap on them.
One part of going camping that I love is simply traveling. I do love traveling. Leaving town on road trips or leaving the state or country for missions trips, I love the adventure in it all. I love seeing God’s creation and exploring, seeing, smelling, tasting from places away from home. I know He has created so much more than I’ll ever be able to enjoy this side of Heaven, and that everything He created here has more purpose than simply my own enjoyment of it.
One part of going camping that I love is simply traveling. I do love traveling. Leaving town on road trips or leaving the state or country for missions trips, I love the adventure in it all. I love seeing God’s creation and exploring, seeing, smelling, tasting from places away from home. I know He has created so much more than I’ll ever be able to enjoy this side of Heaven, and that everything He created here has more purpose than simply my own enjoyment of it.
However, I just can’t help it, to be amazed at Him and His creativity whenever I’m out in it. I see His beauty in bright white, puffy clouds, or shimmering aspen leaves, quiet streams. I imagine His voice in the wind, or in thunder as it is so many times described in the Bible. I see His humor in those crazy looking fish that live in the deepest parts of the ocean. Without the technology we have today, we wouldn’t even know of their existence, let alone what they look like or how they live, but He creates anyway. How many things are there, on just this planet, that no one has ever discovered but He made them anyway? He is the God of Wonders, and everything that He made is perfect, down to the finest detail. And I firmly believe, I know, that things that seem imperfect may only be altered by my own misunderstandings or have been made imperfect because of a being other than Himself.
Are you looking for a miracle? Proof that He exists? Look outside. Look at the night sky. We are swallowed up in the “space” of His creation. Science doesn’t prove God’s non-existence, but affirms His magnificence, His attention to detail. Archeology has never disproved the Bible, but confirmed it.
How in the world did I get from camping to creation? I’m just smiling now. I see God in everything, and when I get outside of my normal home routine and have a few days with my family in different places, it doesn’t bring me nearer or farther away from God, it just allows me to enjoy Him and appreciate Him for all that He has done.
How in the world did I get from camping to creation? I’m just smiling now. I see God in everything, and when I get outside of my normal home routine and have a few days with my family in different places, it doesn’t bring me nearer or farther away from God, it just allows me to enjoy Him and appreciate Him for all that He has done.