Community is OK

This weekend, Grant and I trekked out to a campsite with some friends and did what millions of other Americans did: ate hot dogs and slept in a tent in an effort to cozy up with the summer smells, hues and emotions one last time before the new season is introduced once again to our senses. We ventured out with our friends, our dogs and our coolers loaded with delightful treats. When the six of us (I suppose we made eight with the two dog personalities in tow) arrived at our sight in Oklahoma, there was no particular magic included in the scene, but it didn’t take long for some to emerge from beneath red ant piles and campfire ashes. My, oh my was it INTOXICATING! This “it” being the magic! Allow me to elaborate a smudge.

I believe strongly that God created us with four basic needs for survival: food, water, shelter and community. Community being companionship, fellow plodders down the road to truth and goodness and purpose, and ultimately sharers of LOVE! I believe this very strongly, and the more I grow, the more the need becomes apparent in my life. To my delight, my God has recognized this need existing deep in the dark crusty cellar of soul and has provided me with not only a husband to plod along with, but two LOVELY girlfriends and the company that comes with them as well!

At one point this weekend, I stood in Lake Canton in Oklahoma (which is in and of itself nothing spectacular) and marveled. My toes dug into the quartz stone that’d been eroded into the softest of sands which our Lord had designed to feel just so. I looked up into the sky and watched Abi’s kite sail around on the currents of wind that God put into place on the second day of creation. Peering around, I didn’t see ugly bodies in ill-fitting swimwear, as would typically be the view through my skewed human eyes, but the only visible sights were the faces with the same silly grin my goofy mug possessed mirrored back at me. I stood observing as Abi gazed heavenward, Laurel basked in the son and Grant, Luke and Christopher dove and laughed in the waves. Gone were my insecurities about being in a swimsuit, my worries of work, money, illness. A mindset of present tense was bestowed upon me in the most beautiful of afternoons.

A day later my slow-processing mind devised that I’d been given a glimpse, a small nibble, of the goodness God has prepared for me here on Earth. “Oh the plans I have for you Vanessa! That you will prosper and know my goodness!” Aha! A simple weekend jaunt provided me with what living in community and love and servitude with those around me looks like-and how GOOD His plan in that is. I had the opportunity to be enveloped in the beauty of His creation (yes, even in Oklahoma. It’s OK. Ha ha! Get it?!), both animate and inanimate. He fed my spirit with wind and sand and bug songs creeping in meshy tent windows. He fed the need deep in my soul with laughter and touch and FUN! And to imagine, that my God has designed me to live in community with others all day everyday. It’s not “magic” as I’d called it before, but His divine plan for His love and goodness to be shared with the world over. AND TO IMAGINE THAT MY GOD HAS DESIGNED ME TO LIVE IN COMMUNITY WITH OTHERS ALL DAY EVERYDAY! Is such goodness fathomable…?