Unhappy Camper

Growing up, my family and I went camping from time to time. I loved it… except the getting dirty, carrying backpacks, setting up tents, sleeping on the ground, and going to the bathroom in the woods. That is to say, I mainly just loved walking through the woods and having hot apple cider around the campfire. I’m not much of a camper.

One time when we went camping I wore a white shirt with white pants and white shoes. That’s a bad idea under any circumstances, unless you’re playing the white rabbit in the school play, but it’s an especially bad idea if you’re going camping. My mom told me I should wear something else, but I didn’t listen.

The trail we chose was difficult and much of it went through a creek over slippery rocks. I was in the back feeling sulky about my white shoes getting muddy while the rest of my family was cheerfully exploring the creek ahead of me. I was a shockingly thin kid back then. A strong wind could have knocked me down easily, and so could a heavy backpack if I leaned forward an inch while wearing it. That’s what happened. I leaned forward very slightly to steady myself on the slippery rocks and the weight of my backpack pitched me right into the swiftly flowing water. My family saw me coming toward them but they couldn’t do anything to avoid the domino effect. I hit each one of them like bowling pins and we all went rushing downstream together—me in my dumb, all-white outfit, and them in their sensible hiking clothes. 

At some point in our lives, we’ve all experienced the unpleasantness of being near a grumpy kid. That’s because you can find them anywhere—touring a beautiful castle in Scotland, walking through a sweet-smelling garden in full bloom, in the grocery store holding a cookie in one hand and a balloon in the other, on the beach under a perfect blue sky swept with fluffy white clouds. Grumpy kids (or adults for that matter) can really suck the fun out of an otherwise happy scene. I was that grumpy kid on our camping trip and I wonder if I made it difficult for everyone else to enjoy the beautiful scenery? Quite possibly. But I also remember, after my parents set up the tents and did all the hard work while I sulked, that later that night I saw one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in my life. 

Have you ever seen glow worms? They can make the banks of a creek glow like fairy land. I sat in awe of the beauty of it. I’d changed out of my filthy white clothes and sat comfortably in clean pajamas, sipping hot apple cider under a starry sky, with enormous old trees all around, beside a glowing creek bank. Impossibly beautiful. I didn’t deserve it at all. Have you ever deserved something bad but inexplicably received something good instead? That is the kind of graciousness that undoes you. It melts grumpiness. It makes you sorry for the way you’ve acted. It changes you. 

That’s what God’s love does. 

~Amy