Nature’s gladness

Thanksgiving memories

Patricia Paddey
Ontario Correspondent
ontario@christianweek.org

Now that summer has turned to fall, thousands of Ontarians in the province’s southern regions are looking ahead to Thanksgiving weekend, when they will head north to close their cottages, cabins and trailers in readiness for winter.

For many of these families, it’s a ritual as much associated with Thanksgiving as turkey and pumpkin pie. It’s a ritual my husband and I—together with our three children—will participate in this year for the first time.

As August waned, we became the thankful owners of a trailer set in a Christian trailer park in beautiful Muskoka.

Urban claustrophobia

I’ve long recognized that for all its advantages, urban life can feel increasingly claustrophobic as days lengthen and temperatures rise. There’s simply too much concrete and pavement around. The steady hum of air conditioning drowns out the sounds of the cicadas, and my computer—appreciated through dreary winter months for connecting me to the outside world—is suddenly resented for keeping me from it.

All of creation seems to beckon—and the lure is irresistible.

Sacred spots

For almost a decade, our family has vacationed at the same Christian camp, renting a trailer from another family for a week or two each summer. We’ve loved the place for its colourful maples, tall pines, rocks, rivers and craggy beauty. We’ve loved it for the freedoms and experiences it has given our citified children. And we’ve loved it for the way God has used our times there to draw our family close, refresh our spirits and restore our wonder at His handiwork.

So when the opportunity arose to purchase a trailer there this summer, we held a family meeting to ensure we were all in agreement, then prayed, asking God to close the door if He wasn’t. A few short days later, the trailer was ours.

We spent every possible moment at the camp in what was left of the summer.

Among the August memories I’ll be giving thanks for this coming holiday are seeing my “super cool” 14-year-old son’s delight at rescuing a tiny, dirt-covered turtle from a dusty road. Together with his cousin, he carefully placed that little turtle in a bucket with water and a rock to climb on, then hiked to the local frog pond where they released the small creature into its safe, new habitat.

I watched my 10-year-old daughter collect wildflowers in order to offer their nectar to “Willy,” a monarch butterfly with a wounded wing.

I saw my 16-year-old with her girlfriends as they spun in dizzy circles on the beach one evening at sunset, twirling, arms flung wide in delicious abandon until they collapsed in giggling heaps on the sand.

I sat outdoors with all three children one clear night, staring speechless, with awe-filled eyes into the starry heavens until our necks hurt.

I heard my husband say that having the trailer to go to on weekends made even the most challenging days at work seem somehow easier.

As the old English hymn attests, this is indeed our Father’s world. But He created it with us in mind. Spending time in His creation can be medicine for the soul, a humbling experience and the most sincere form of worship.

This Thanksgiving, I’ll remember stars and turtles, butterflies and sunsets, and the closing words of another hymn: “The Lord is King; let the heavens ring! God reigns; let the earth be glad!”