One summer when my second son was thirteen years old I took him and his two younger brothers on a canoe trip in a remote park in Northwestern Ontario. After a long and difficult portage we arrived at a beautiful pristine lake. We canoed all afternoon and finally we found a spot to cook our supper. We knew that it was not a place where we should set up camp to we continued down the lake. Around eight o’clock that evening we still had not found a suitable camping spot. We had been warned that there were bears in the area so it was important that our camping spot would be safe. As dusk was beginning to settle a man on an island we were passing by called to us and invited us to set up camp by him and his son.
We set up our tent and then put the food that we had brought with us on a rope between two trees, high up out of the way of the bears, or so we thought. We had settled in for the night and at midnight the other man called to me that there was a bear in the camp. He and I went out with our flashlights and found the bear up a tree trying to reach his food. We threw stones at the bear to get him down and chase him away. When he left we went back to bed and about thirty minutes later the bear returned. This time he was after our food and he had managed to knock the containers out of the trees. We gather up the food and other camping supplies and brought them up to our campsite. I lit a fire and sat by the fire to keep it burning. I sat there for the entire night until the other man got up at about sunrise the next morning. At that point I went to bed.
During the night as I sat there alone by the fire I listened to the sounds of the remote area. I heard owls and coyotes but otherwise it was extremely quiet. I wondered if this is what it was like as Elijah sat in the mouth of the cave on Mount Horeb. In the stillness of the moment you could hear the voice of God.
And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. 1 Kings 19:12 -13
"Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
2 comments:
I have great memories of that trip. I'm sure that as tired as you were, there is nothing more peaceful as sitting around a fire on a small island in the middle of the forest in the middle of the night.
It was that trip that made me realize that you had become a man. I am sure that I could not have made it back without your help.
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