Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Camping (07/11/05)
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TITLE: Cabin by the Creek | Previous Challenge Entry
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07/18/05 -
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They’ll be here soon. Spring is coming. I’ve missed them all so: the father, the mother, the little one, too. I hope they bring the dog, and the cousins.
It’s been cold here this winter, cold and lonely. The space inside me needs the warmth that only a family can bring. I could use a nice, fresh coat of paint, and the green grass that surrounds me is starting to grow high. My screen door screeches terribly when it’s opened, but it’s been so long since it’s been opened…
The creek is high today after the big rain. The water is stained with mud, but in a day or two, it will be crystal clear again, beckoning the children to come and play on its sandy shore and splash in its stream.
I can’t wait to see the family again, my family. The father will bring them to me. The father is a strong man. He made me with his own loving hands. He built me so that they would have a place to escape the hectic world outside, a place to talk to each other and to God, uninterrupted by meaningless distractions.
The mother loves me more than anyone else. Her mother before her was baptized in the flowing waters beneath me. She is secure and at peace here, because this place has been in her family for generations. She lovingly placed a handmade sign on my outer wall. It reads: “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. Psalm 24:1” The mother sees me as a treasure. I am surrounded by her vision of the most beautiful place on earth.
The little one is almost ten. How time flies. She doesn’t always like to come and visit me. She misses her friends, her toys, her phone, and her modern life. I am primitive: one room, musty and damp. She dislikes the bugs and the dirt and the heat. She cannot yet fully appreciate the beauty of God’s awesome handiwork. But deep down she knows that this is a place where she can feel the love of her family like nowhere else.
There is also an older boy. He has gone out to find his own place in the world, so he doesn’t come around very often anymore. But he’ll be back, because he is part of the family, and because he loves me too.
How I long for them to come, to play in the creek, to walk along the wooded paths, and to rest together beneath the shade of the trees. When night falls, they will build a fire and tell stories. They will fall asleep within my walls, or perhaps in the open air under the shimmering stars. Whenever they are near, I can feel their love. They have even given me a name. “The Cabin” they call me, simply, but endearingly. I am glad to belong to someone, glad to be theirs.
How God has used me! My existence is proof that He can use anything to achieve His marvelous purposes. Through me, He has provided one family with a way to grow closer to each other, closer to the beauty of His creation, and closer to Himself. God is always here, just like I am, awaiting their return. He can talk to them anywhere. But this place, this lovely, quiet, place is special to them…and they are special to me.
We will be together for many years, I imagine. They may choose to make improvements upon my simple design, but as long as any of them are living, I know that in some form, I will remain. The boy and the little girl will one day bring their own families to visit me and they will warm me with their love and laughter. God has used me. He has used me for a beautiful purpose.
“Come and sit on my porch, and we will listen to the peaceful flow of the creek and the singing of the birds. Let us enjoy God’s masterpiece of creation together,” I’ll say when at last I see them again. I will speak to them as they have spoken to me, and although they may not hear me with their ears, I am quite certain that they will hear me with their hearts.
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