Ansible-One

This past July the family and I accompanied the Youth group to Glorieta, NM.  Our job was to drive a van and provide additional chaparone support as needed for the group.  The past several years I have gone as part of the team so to speak so this year was quite a change.  As it turns out, we were needed.  There was an emergency situation that required my wife heading in one direction to the hospital while I stayed behind to provide authority if needed.

Glorieta Main Entrance

All of that aside, Glorieta is awesome.  We played, worshipped God, and studied in the Word.  We will definately return as a family.  It is easy to relax and enjoy God’s creation and to be renewed by His spirit.

At home, it is nearly impossible to explore and experience raw creation like you can at Glorieta.  Everything is city.  Parks are small, and the larger ones are dangerous simply because people can be dangerous.  Not that I would let my son roam free at camp, but the attitudes of the people around us were quite different.

For example, the first thing the kiddo wanted to do was climb a mountain.  He ran to the back door of our building pointed through the glass and said, “that’s the one I am going to climb.”  The next morning we go out and start looking at our assigned challenge.  No paths.  No trails.  No sign any human had picked this spot to start climbing.  So we intrepidly dive into the woods up the slope.  We had made it maybe 20 feet when the volunteer building manager came out onto the back porch.

Instantly I’m thinking, here it comes, she’s going to tell us not to go this way or we can’t do this.  She asked if we are going on a hike?  After about 30 seconds of exchange she said, “Well, have a great time!”

I was floored.  Not that there wasn’t some part of me that expected her to just give us the thumbs up, but the whole conversation was genuine and direct.  None of the positioning and rationalizing that normally happens.  Off we go into the woods.

About an hour in we spot a road obviously used by horses and work trucks so we start to follow it.  (NOTE: it is nearly impossible to get lost.  Glorieta is at the bottom of the slope and the bell tower chimes every 30 minutes.)  In a few minutes we see a truck coming and we move out of the way so they can pass.  Friendly smiles and waves pass us and we keep on walking.  A few minutes later the truck is back.  I slip back to my “city” mode and think this guy is here to gripe at us for being there.

The worker asks if we are looking for a particular trail.  Since we weren’t looking for anything we asked there were any nearby we could check out.  He not only described the trail but when he drove away he motioned toward it as well.  Again just like the woman, this man was genuine.

I don’t know if was just the mountains or the camp, but after that morning I didn’t care about where I was or who I was talking to the rest of the time.  I know it is easy to see God’s presence in the midst of camp “spiritual highs”, but there is something to be said when Christians are acting like Christians.  If at home, church, or far away at camp we should always remember to love one another.

I saw this praying mantis the other day.  I apologize for the cruddy picture my phone takes.  As we were walking back to the house after moving two loads of furniture, I paused for half a second and noticed this odd creature rocking slightly in the wind on the top of a car.  At first, I thought it was just a leaf, but once focused on the mystery I could see what it truly was.

After he was gently moved to the tree and shown to the family, we let him go on his way.  As people, we are not much unlike this little insect.  We too are God’s creation.  The mantis was purpose built as was man and both are capable of being harmful and helpful.

For the mantis, it will seek and destroy the pests in a garden.  However, it will also take out the beneficial members of its community for its own benefit.  Humans constantly do the same thing.  We can be helpful to one another, the community and the environment.  Yet, we are also willing to destroy these gifts with barely a second thought.

The next time you are walking through the yard and see a bit of God’s creation starring back at you, stop for a second and discover its beauty and detail.  And remember that it was made for a purpose, just like you.