Prayer #33: S'more Grace, Please

Should four people camping for two days in a national park camp zone -- no biking, no kayaking, just hiking/cooking/sleeping -- require an entire carload of gear? Isn't that just more for the bears to get into?

Prayer #33: S'more Grace, Please

In the beginning, was there camping?

Did Adam and Eve fall asleep counting the stars in your heavens? Did they hike through Eden, and absorb breathtaking vistas? Or did they hop in their Winnebago and run, tires squealing, from Paradise?

Be with me this weekend, Lord, as I head to Your great outdoors. Keep me safe from [unrolls list] mosquitos thunder lighting rain bears mountain lions hunters trailers litter fire sticks blisters food poisoning hail flash floods bees campsite bathrooms Indians snow rocks landslides wolves poison ivy getting lost my traveling companions my self.

Because You know I am rarely as understanding as I could be, patient as I should be, or calm as I must be. If only I could wrap my faults in a bear bag and pull them high into a tree, far away from my human weakness, so that only my more divine instincts would play out.

But since I can't, I'm sending up a pre-camp S.O.S. to You instead. Thank you in advance for leaving trail markers. I hope the bears don't eat them. Or me.

Amen.