Camping is one of my family’s favorite things to do on the weekend. We started taking the kids sleeping bag camping when they were very little, mainly because we didn’t have a lot of money, but wanted to get them out of the house. We’d pack up the cooler and load up the car with sleeping bags, stuffed animals and of course the tent and hit the road to a different camping spot almost every weekend.
Thinking back on it, it is kind of funny to think about all the various things we piled into the car that we all found to be important. My husband always made sure to bring his portable grill and BBQ tools, I always brought soap, a first aid kit, my bathrobe and coffee. The kids always brought their stuffed animals, matching pajamas and matching sleeping bags. We’d make every effort to get to the campsite while it was still light out as getting settled with three little girls was always fairly time consuming.
The kids enjoyed the beauty of camping, but they really had a great time once the sun went down and the stars appeared. I also really enjoyed all the wonder that the night sky brings, and of course that wonder often led to imaginations running wild at the sound of a twig snapping or a howl that was deep in the forest. Half the time the kids got so scared that I got scared too! My husband was no help as he often would chase us around the campfire pretending to be “the tickle monster” who lived deep in the woods. He’d run after our three screaming little girls and try to pick them up and tickle them. We all had a blast.
Our weekend camping trips also had an unintentional benefit: they led to many conversations and teaching moments about God and Scripture. One night while we were reading bedtime stories, my littlest one asked me if God ever went camping. I was deep in thought as to how to answer that one, when my oldest responded in a very matter-of-fact tone that “of course God goes camping, he goes camping with us every weekend!”
When I asked my oldest how she was so sure about that, she replied that she had heard in Sunday school that God could come into our lives and hearts if we invited him, so she figured that he might like to go camping too—so she had been inviting Him along for the past couple of months! I tried so hard to conceal my smile, as I think that was about the cutest thing I’d ever heard.
Those weekends were some of the best times in my life. My relationship with my husband, my kids and God really took root over those weekends spent in the woods. The kids are all grown and out of the house now and my daughters now have kids of their own, and they are just now at the age where they can take them camping with God.
