On this day walking through the cabin filled woods you hear many sounds of camp; birds chirping, squirrels, an occasional dog bark, and the overwhelming shouts of volunteers and staff saying back and forth, ” WE LOVE CAMPERS YES WE DO! WE LOVE CAMPERS HOW ABOUT YOU!?” Even though the last statement doesn’t fit into the typical sounds of the woods, to me they are so vital to these particular woods.
This is camper arrival day at Camp Barnabas. The one day in which many of these campers have literally been counting down to on calendars at home with their parents. This is the beginning of a week long adventure for each of them, one where they are just kids getting to do what they do best: be kids.
I have pictures of campers on this day doing many things to greet the crowd such as: standing out of the sun roofs of their cars in the drop-off line waving passionately at everyone with eyes, (including the random pets around camp =-)), running into the arms of a familiar staff members, and high five-ing every single person they pass. This is a day where you can see the joy of being loved in the most raw form; they are simply loved, hugged, and greeted because they are human and because God loves them. This day and this week is a very rare season in each campers life year after year. Every week on this day I think of the story of Jesus and the man with leprosy.
When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. Matthew 8:1-3
Not that I see these children as lepers but often society doesn’t place value on their lives, the beautiful ways they can bless the community around them, or how they can teach the world wonderful graces about life and love. The part of this story that I often think of on this day is the part where Jesus reached out to TOUCH the man to heal him. Jesus shows in other places how he has the power to heal with one word (the centurion’s worker of Matt 8:14-17) or even no words at all (the woman who simply touched his hem, Luke 8:40-49, and was healed). Jesus had the ability to heal this man by simply looking at him and saying the words, however Jesus knew something that no one else did, exactly what this man needed more than anything was to be loved through touch. You didn’t touch lepers… you just didn’t. Jesus knew that this man didn’t simply need to know His love through being healed alone but through His touch.
I watch these people be loved right where they need to be every day. They are not only given care and attention, but celebrated. When they come into the gates people are cheering and rejoicing over their simple existence and their mere presence. They are hugged and shown off. Their talents are exemplified through the week, and their passions are accepted and often celebrated. They become simply people with something to offer to the world around them. In loving them like Jesus has called us to always reaps a harvest in that we, staff and volunteers, learn more from these precious children than we could ever hope to teach them each day. We are forever changed. We learn the very thing we think we are here to teach them, and we feel what we so deeply want them to feel; the true joy of being loved just because we are children of God.
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