When Judah was 4, the only thing he wanted for Christmas was a backhoe. I didn’t quite understand what he liked about backhoes – or even how he knew anything about them. I should have realized. A little boy only has to watch a big yellow machine one time to get it stuck in his head. Last Monday I spent some time watching a backhoe at work. Earl Gabbard and Arthur Back came over to the camp and did a bunch of work for us. I was fascinated by the power and the flexibility of the machine. I missed those days of homeschooling when I would have sent the boys outside to watch what was going on. My girls were slightly interested when we watched the backhoe together, but mostly they were concerned with picking dandelions ("lion-dils") and rescuing mismatched, ancient flip-flops ("flip-shoes") that had been left on the playground. When I was driving the boys home from the bus stop, I was telling them about watching the backhoe push a tree down. I’d never seen anything like it, and I thought it was extremely interesting. Judah offhandedly said, "Oh, I’ve seen that before." Burst my bubble… Guess who spends more time outside around big machinery. Obviously not mom.

On Friday, Mark Driskill and Scott Hollan brought Boy Scout troop #185 to Bethel Camp. They camped out overnight and spent much of Saturday doing work projects. They lopped the branches off the tree that was pushed down and hauled them to a burn pile. Someday soon the rest of the tree will be sawed up into benches to be placed around a campfire ring or two. During the summer, we usually have one main campfire service each week, but it’s also nice to occasionally be able to send each cabin of kids out to build their own campfire. There’s just something about sitting around a fire in the darkness with a group of people that brings out conversation and deepens bonds of friendship. And the music around a campfire! Why does it always sound so much better than songs stuck between the walls of a building?

Have you ever listened to a song over and over again, memorized it and sung along with it, and then all of a sudden… you’re listening to it and something clicks… and you understand what the writer meant? I had one of those moments recently with the song "No More Faith" by Andrew Peterson.

I realized that he was referring to 1 Corinthians 13 - "Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." But what’s going to happen to faith and hope? Why would they disappear and leave only love? You know what I think? Faith and hope are both about waiting for something that is to come. On the day that I see Jesus’ face, there will be nothing left to hope for, and no reason to have faith in anything better to come. I’ll be face to face with the only person who can fulfill all of my desires. All that will be left for me to do is love.

But as to faith… and hope… There’s a little Tonka backhoe around here somewhere that’s spent countless hours in the sandbox, digging hole after hole and moving piles of sand from one spot to another. "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (The present came from his Papaw & Mam-Mam, but I think the same principle applies.) Have a great week!