There is a particular closeness that is cultivated when we retreat from our routines, away from the miles of taillights and reliable internet into the loose, unkempt earth and towering trees. Under a star-freckled sky, we can unhinge ourselves from the efficient, concentric circles that keep us in the everyday track, going around and around — when we are surrounded, but seldom connected.
Nature beckons us to come and invites us to slow down and marvel together at the vast, unrestrained beauty of God’s creation.
To recall where everything comes in its timing and all is provided exactly what it needs in its proper season.
Jesus says in the Gospel of Luke, “Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don’t fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?”
But really, who has the time to walk into the fields to look at the wildflowers — especially when we have children?
When there is laundry that lays unfolded in the hamper and fragments of toys scattered about. When you’re trying to make vegetables taste great for your toddler who now has the appetite for ice cream, taking a moment to sit and breathe and reconnect with God and one another in nature is appealing, but seems unattainable.
As parents, most of us are all too familiar with the often overwhelming reality of raising a child:
the mysterious jam on our child’s shirt,
the undiagnosable cough that won’t go away,
the ever-bending schedules and milestones and classes,
of never being alone, but feeling disconnected,
and facing the rising challenges to be intentional with our partners, our children, our community.
There is rarely enough time or resources to be intentional or to reconnect with those in our lives. But as Pastor Bryan reminds us, “In order to say yes to the things that are important in your life, you have to intentionally say no to other things.” We have to make the time if we’re ever going to get away and engage as a family.
At Ekko, the parallel is often drawn of Sundays representing our family dinners—when everyone gathers to feast on the slow-cooked Word of God together, every week at the same time. But our camps and retreats are more representative of our family getaways: these trips facilitate the intimacy and intentionality of family outings as a body, the messy, yet the glorious nature of vacations. When you press in to make the time, to log the long hours in the car, to prepare, and frequent many gas station bathrooms until you reach your destination.
“Something special happens, a kind of bonding,” Pastor Bryan says in his talk with Pastor Isaac. “Even though it’s crazy or the kids complain, once we’re there, that’s where memories are made.”
“It takes a lot of work and preparation, but there is something about going away as a family that brings us closer together.”
Family Camp gives us the much-needed space to get away, realign our hearts with God, deepen our relationships with others on the journey and make memories with our kids. To slow down, step into the unpaved soil and make time to walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers with one another.
So we can remember that, like the lilies of the field, everything comes in His timing and He provides exactly what we need in season.
There will be tears, a thousand questions and spotty technology. But, once we get there, camp will provide the slow and unhurried pace to slow with one another and breathe in air filtered by pine and earth. Going away together is how we get close for the journey and make lifelong memories with our family and body. It guards the space that allows us to re-engage and to be present with those in our lives.