Camping Outdoors
I blinked my eyes and adjusted them to the darkness. Why was it so cold? The tent billowed against me on my right, the gust of wind causing it to curl up. I shivered, pulling my sleeping bag closer to my body and curling like a caterpillar.
Although I had gone to sleep snug and warm, my body temperature had gone down significantly, and now I was awake. It was too late for regrets. I had to do something to make myself warmer otherwise I wouldn't be sleeping for the rest of the night.
I looked around to see what was the issue. That's when I realised I had made a rookie mistake. I had left the sleeping bag slightly open at the top, and the cold air had rushed in. My throw was no longer over me. I was exposed.
I ran a couple of scenarios in my head. Could I just stick it out and sleep through the cold? What I wanted the most was to go back to sleep. As I pulled up the zipper and wrapped the throw around me, I realised there was a sheen of cold dew over it. It had been thrown aside along the tent wall and had absorbed the cold.
I closed my eyes, hypnotising myself to go to sleep. Sleep. Go to sleep. As I tried to slow down my breathing and shivering, I heard the thrashing of the wind against our tent. It was angry and fierce as if grabbing the tent by the collar. It wouldn't let go and kept coming back, one hit after another. As I lay curled up trying to stay warm, I realised I was at the complete mercy of the wind. It had a mind of its own, ferocious and headstrong. The only thing that kept me from its warpath was the tent around me, pegged slightly into the ground. The flailing and flapping of the tent walls left little to be confident in.
As this title would suggest, I went camping a couple of weeks ago. It was a great time, and I had so much fun! We ate good food, played our favourite game for hours and took many walks around the campground. The water and the skyline were breathtaking, especially during sunset. I was stunned by the beauty of God's creation and how blessed I was to enjoy it with good company.
While I thoroughly enjoyed myself, you should know that we went camping in the middle of winter. I'm not sure why we thought this was a good idea at the time, but we did, and so there we were, camping in the middle of winter. The piece above narrates my experience on a cold and windy night with a figment of my imagination.
One of my camping highlights was spending time with God while surrounded by nature. It's extra special when you take the time to make it so (for me, it means a hot cup of tea and something to munch on). As I read, two verses stood out to me:
- Ecclesiastes 7:12
Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter,
but the advantage of knowledge is this:
Wisdom preserves those who have it. - Ecclesiastes 8:8
As no one has power over the wind to contain it,
so no one has power over the time of their death.
If I were reading at any other time, I probably would've skimmed past these verses. But this time, I didn't. I mulled over what these verses meant, why the author had chosen to use the words shelter and wind and what it emphasised about what he was saying. My experiences camping outdoors added another dimension of meaning and understanding to my reading of God's word.
While I don't think you should always read your experiences into the passage, there is value in how our experiences help us relate to God's word. They give us a deeper appreciation for how timeless this text is - how relevant and relatable it is to us in all seasons of life.
What are some of your experiences that add to your understanding of God's word?