Summer Camp Drop-off Surprise

I’m going to try to wrap surely insufficient words around one of those God moments that I wish I could just bottle up and put on the shelf so that I could re-live it again in the future. You see, I just dropped our youngest, our 18-year old daughter, off at church. It’s a hot, Sunday summer afternoon and she’s going off to camp for a week. That’s something she’s been doing for a
long, long time – going to church camp every summer – been doing that for years. 

But this time is different.  She’s going as an adult…as a camp counselor with some responsibilities to watch over a group of kids.  She’s not going this time as a camp attendee.  Not as a student. Not as a little girl.  No, this time she’s going as a godly young woman that has a beautiful heart and that surely is going to inspire, teach and encourage the kids that are put under her care this next week.  I know she will.

This one is the last one at home for us.  We have four daughters…two are grown and married and one just got engaged and will be married this fall. This one is the youngest though…our baby girl.  She lived through the hardest, most painful moments of our tumultuous marriage (along with her two-years older sister).  She got to see up close and personal the most difficult parts of my addiction and recovery. She saw first hand all the pain between my wife and I as we struggled to keep our marriage together for so many years. She got to hear the fights and
the yelling and the cursing…seeing both of us in tears many, many times. She got to see the very worst of both me and my wife. Truth be told, we really gave her every reason in the world to turn into an angry, bitter, isolated and troubled young person.  Isn’t that how troubled kids are formed?

But that’s not what happened.  That’s not who she turned out to be. (I’m having trouble telling this story as I struggle to speak clearly, getting choked up with tears as I’m driving home from dropping her off, mumbling into the microphone, recording these notes in a feeble attempt to put words around what I’m feeling right now). On the way out to the church she plugged her iPhone into the stereo system of the Jeep and she put on her playlist of worship music. You see, she also sings on the worship team at our church, so she has a pretty cool playlist of all the great worship songs we sing there and she shares them with her dad. We listened to song after song, praising the name of Jesus, as I drove the 30 minute drive to church to drop her off.

The last song that she played before I let her out at church was “You Reign Above It All” by Bethel Music. I love the lines of the chorus that proclaim…

“Let all the heavens and the Earth erupt in song.

Sing Hallelujah to the everlasting one.

There is no higher name.

Jesus you reign…above it all.”

That lyric hung in the air and in my heart as I put the Jeep in park and helped her get her stuff out of the back, giving her a hug as we said goodbye.  I encouraged her to have a great time and to change hearts and to change lives.  And I know that’s exactly what she’ll do…because that’s just what she does. She sure changes my heart every time I see her. That’s because I see Jesus in her and he is constantly changing me through her, constantly working on me to make me into the man he wants me to be.  He uses my daughter…all of my daughters…and especially their mom to do that…as long as I keep allowing him to…giving him permission to change me.

As I watched her walk away, dragging her over-filled suitcase with her backpack slung over her shoulder and her stuffed “Stitch” cartoon character pillow (a lingering symbol of the little girl hanging on to the emerging woman she has become) attached to her bag…completely unaware of what was erupting inside of me…my heart…well…my heart…it all but exploded in gratitude.  I got back into the Jeep and I really could hardly breathe.  I was literally gasping for air as the emotions and the tears flooded over me into the absolutely most beautiful way to drown.  This is worship for me.

You see my daughter could be one of those kids that spends all her time on social media watching Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion and Ariana Grande videos.  She could be the kid that tries to sneak in after her curfew, who lies to her parents and makes excuses and secretly
uses drugs or a vape pen.  She could be the girl that tries to get attention from the boys by being loose with her body and showing a lot of skin with the way she dresses. The way I acted as a father and husband and a man certainly gave her every single reason in the world to turn out like that.

But she hasn’t. She has a job that she got by herself and she works hard at it and shows up on time and treats her boss, co-workers and customers with respect (whether they are deserving of it or not).  She sings in front of a couple of thousand people and leads our congregation at church in worship with a team of A-level singers and musicians.  She leads a small group of middle-school girls and turns on worship music in her room and in her car and in the bathroom as she’s getting ready in the morning.  Oh, her room – it’s a mess and she has a terrible habit of leaving her shoes all over the house…but nobody’s perfect, right?  That SO doesn’t matter any more to me.  She has turned into a beautiful, amazing and inspiring young woman that I love and respect so much. She’s just plain fun to be around and her smile lights up the room when she comes in and her laugh is infectious and she has great sense of humor and I just love spending time with her.   I could just go on and on…I guess that’s just what dad’s do.

My wife and I are going to miss her so much when she heads off to college out of state this fall. But we couldn’t be more grateful and we couldn’t be more proud of the person she is allowing God to craft her into. She is truly a work of art. All of my girls are.  Their mom has a lot to do with that.  She provided the good DNA in the equation, that’s for sure.

Like I said…it’s moments like these that I just want to bottle up and keep on the shelf to re-live over and over again because these really are the very best moments in my life. These are the kinds of moments when you get a glimpse of a miracle that you really shouldn’t even have the privilege of seeing. My heart is grateful beyond words, Lord Jesus, that you do let me see miracles like this from time-to-time. Thank you for my daughter. Thank you for all of my daughters.  Thank you for my wife.  Thank you for my sons-in-law. Thank you for my
grandchildren. Feels like my heart might explode if I could possibly be any more grateful for all that you’ve done. 

What a miraculous moment. 

And I thought I was just dropping my kid off for another year of summer camp.