This week my normal routine has changed. I took a break from worshiping at my urban sanctuary, and went camping at another sacred place of mine. Growing up, Newago State Park has been a place of retreat for my family. I can remember many exciting camping trips at the rustic campsites around Hardy Dam pond. There is a part of me that wishes to return to the early years of my life, away from the independence and maturity I have now and towards the rugged canvas tent holding all five of us, shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip, while we listened to my father’s stories of Indian Joe and my seemingly ageless Dad’s adventures through colonial Michigan. Perhaps this nostalgia prompted me to schedule a time to this sacred with my wife.

As I stepped out of the car, I immediately was back in that timeless place of childhood. Out of all the senses, I believe smell to be the strongest. There is something that is so intimate about the ability to take in air, taste it, and then return it. Smelling air seems to engage a sort of memory that is beyond words or comprehension. The smell of campfire is one of those fragrances for me that spark a mysterious memory of my childhood.

After setting up camp, we made our way to the lake that is so very familiar to me. Being captivated by the smell still, I soon found myself grabbed by another sense. The sight of the sunset over the water had a sacramental quality about it. The Roman Catholic Church defines a Sacrament as ‘an outward sign of inward grace instituted by Christ for our sanctification’. With the aid of this icon of God’s love, I found myself in a place out of time and space, and I certainly saw God’s grace in my life. Bathing in the memories of this place, I found myself bathing in God’s grace with the one that I loved in life, my wife. Out of all the things in life that can show God’s love, my favorite is human love. Being unconditionally loved by another, while that person happens to be the object of your love, seems to reek of yet a greater love. What love, that the God of vastness and grandeur would accommodate Himself to us in such simplicity as Water, Bread, Word, and human love!

God did not stop amazing me on this weekend camping trip. As the late hour of night came I was awaken by yet another sign. It was not at a sunrise or even a sunset, but during the climax of a midnight moonrise. This is an unexplainable marvel of creation that is often missed by humans. Despite its lack of popularity from the human species, in the middle of the night, creation seems to still itself and enjoy. It is just as the stars are at their brightest that they seem to dim for the main event. Just as us living things on earth grow unsettled by the darkness, the cumulus curtains seem to tease creation as it unveils the fullness of the midnight mirror of the sun. As if to applaud for an encore the subtle waves atop the lake reflect the bright moon, making little sparkles across the dark surface.

O great Composer of Creation, never stop amazing me,
As I strive to notice you in my blindness, never cease showing your love to me!