More Than the Watchmen Wait for Morning
This past weekend Alec, Zach, Bri, our cousins from Tulsa, Ryan and Adrienne, and I broke out our camping gear from storage, ready for an adventure. To our native Californian minds, this is the perfect time of year to head out to the wilderness for a couple days of R&R. Our native Kansas friends warned us it wasn't quite camping season. We weren't dismayed by their nay-saying and packed up our car Friday after work on our way to Cross Timbers State Park. It was only about a 2 hour drive, but as the sun crept closer to the horizon, the temperatures continued to drop and wind speed continued to rise. When we arrived at the campsite around 9pm, we found Ryan and Adrienne huddled in their car to protect themselves from the pre-tornado winds. Our high hopes of games and smores around the campfire quickly disappeared and it was all we could do to get the tent up, as many layers on as possible, and inside our sleeping bags. Despite our best efforts at staying warm, I don't think anyone got a good night sleep and the thoughts that ran through our heads all night were something along the lines of "If a tornado hits, where the heck do we go?!" When we woke up, or rather, got up with the sun, Adrienne's car informed us it was 34 degrees at 7am. Don't even want to know how cold it actually got during the night plus wind chill.
As Saturday wore on, however, we slowly peeled off layers on our morning hike and game sessions and it turned into a rather beautiful day. My nose even got a little pink! We enjoyed hot dogs for lunch, some more games, another hike, some fishing, exploring, lemon chicken for dinner, gourmet s'mores (substitute Reese's for just plain chocolate) and general relaxing in God's beautiful creation of the Midwest. Saturday night thankfully brought only stillness and rest for our tired bodies. We were sad to leave Sunday after lunch to our jobs and stresses of "real" life, but this will be a camping trip we will tell our kids about! And probably keep that gear packed away until May next year.
On a side-note, Alec made a profound connection comparing Psalm 130:6, "My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning." to our camping night Friday into Saturday. As we were praying in the protection of our sleeping bags and tent for morning and the sun to come, we could only imagine how watchmen in Old Testament times yearned for the sunrise to warm their frozen and weary bodies. And how the Psalmist must have truly ached for Christ's coming. As we are ending the season of Lent, and even after Easter into Pentecost and Ordinary Time, may we wait for the Lord more than we waited for the sun to rise Saturday morning. Oh God, that we would have such desire to be with You.
As Saturday wore on, however, we slowly peeled off layers on our morning hike and game sessions and it turned into a rather beautiful day. My nose even got a little pink! We enjoyed hot dogs for lunch, some more games, another hike, some fishing, exploring, lemon chicken for dinner, gourmet s'mores (substitute Reese's for just plain chocolate) and general relaxing in God's beautiful creation of the Midwest. Saturday night thankfully brought only stillness and rest for our tired bodies. We were sad to leave Sunday after lunch to our jobs and stresses of "real" life, but this will be a camping trip we will tell our kids about! And probably keep that gear packed away until May next year.
On a side-note, Alec made a profound connection comparing Psalm 130:6, "My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning." to our camping night Friday into Saturday. As we were praying in the protection of our sleeping bags and tent for morning and the sun to come, we could only imagine how watchmen in Old Testament times yearned for the sunrise to warm their frozen and weary bodies. And how the Psalmist must have truly ached for Christ's coming. As we are ending the season of Lent, and even after Easter into Pentecost and Ordinary Time, may we wait for the Lord more than we waited for the sun to rise Saturday morning. Oh God, that we would have such desire to be with You.
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