Peace on earth 12/27/05

Peace on earth   12/27/05

We had a little taste of peace on earth this week . . . Christmas at camp.

Everybody else was gone, all our work was done (for the moment) and it was just Joanna and me and the girls. We dumped out the stockings, went to church and back, opened gifts, relaxed and enjoyed our new movies, music, books, and most of all, each other's company. A whole evening of no interuptions, no mail to sort, no buttons to punch.

Here's one of the beauties of camp life -- it can get very, very quiet.

We often laugh about the little troop of teen boys one summer who took an overnight camping trip to Goldmine Creek. They got all settled, with tents and supper, and then, they said, it got QUIET. They looked around . . . not a sound anywhere . . . the woods were motionless . . . after fifteen or twenty minutes they couldn't stand it . . . they bundled everything up in a great rush and bolted for the van!!

Busy, flustered, I am often like them . . . not ready for The Big Quiet. I am not used to it. It can be un-nerving.

But once accepted, it becomes a rich blessing. When my whirlwind stops, for even a few minutes, I can see beyond it. The mountains come into plain view. . . the smells of the trees and the dark earth come floating gently in . . . the softness and hardness and gritiness of the rocks are felt by my wondering toes. . . I hear the soft buzzing of tiny bees, the song of a shy sparrow.

It's a time to think, a time to consider other points of view, a time to suppose what might be happening around me. What might be happening in the minds and hearts and lives of loved ones, for instance, instead of only in my own whirlwind life.

There's nothing like having His Word right there during a time like that. His Word, His Truth, hidden in the right place. It keeps me focussed on what is true, what is right, what is pure. I can't listen, I can't read, I can't memorize, I can't meditate, until it gets very, very quiet.

Joel