Dear Camper,

I thought of you today.

I was driving home, a familiar path I’ve traveled hundreds of times, but today, something made me think of YOU. Maybe it was the reflection of my one year old son chirping happily in his car seat in my rearview mirror. Perhaps it was the nostalgia that tends to fill us all around this time of year.

Either way, I thought of you, and as I did, my heart whispered a prayer for your wellness, your happiness, your safety.

It’s been years now, since the weeks we spent together in that glorious, magical place known as The Pines. But even after all this time, I can picture your face so clearly. Of course, I’m sure you look different now. Older. But to me you are frozen in time- one of the best times of my life.

You may not realize this, but YOU were my first experience of motherhood- my first taste of the selflessness and sacrifice that is asked of a parent on a daily basis, my first understanding of how beautiful it can be to die to oneself for the sake of another, my first experience of pouring continuously into the life of another and somehow never coming up empty.

I like to think that part of the reason God crossed our paths is because He knew that someday He’d bless me with a little baby boy who would open my heart to feel and experience and live deeply, in the same way that you did. I like to think (and I really believe) that I’m a better mother today because I knew you and loved you.

I learned so, so many things from you, you know.

From you I learned that JOY, true, deep, untouched joy is as simple as jumping in the pool on a hot summer day, singing a song in the light of a campfire, encountering Jesus for the first time in Adoration.

From you I learned that despite all the sentiments we attach to it, childhood, and especially adolescence can be HARD. My heart still aches when I think of the crosses you were carrying when I met you. But my soul leaps when I recall your bravery and kindness in the face of your suffering. I hope you are still just as brave and kind.

From you I learned unconditional love…what it looks like, what it feels like, what it IS. I learned it because I loved you unconditionally. That’s what I was asked to do, expected to do and equipped to do in the weeks I spent training for our time together. But I also learned from watching YOU love. Your friends around you. The counselors who became your family. And the God-man you met and encountered personally, maybe for the first time ever while on those campgrounds. Your love was a vivacious, full, child-like love that made me wiser, more hopeful, and better.

Yes, I’m a better one for the knowing of you, my dear camper.

I hope that wherever you are now, regardless of whether you remember me, you remember and know still the Jesus you met at summer camp. I pray He is still the most important part of your day, and that you know with certainty and believe with faith that you are the most important part of His. I hope that you have continued to experience joy, and forgiveness and LOVE the way you experienced it at The Pines. I hope that your blessings are abundant, your hurts are few and your sights are set on your heavenly homeland…and I hope that someday, I’ll see you there again and we will celebrate together, home at long last.

GO TREES ->>>

Love,

Cubby