If you ever get a chance to go to Traverse City, Michigan; be sure to go to the Sleeping Bear Dunes Dune Climb. Get there after the heat of the day, just before sundown for a beautiful experience. It's great physical exercise for the kids and the adults. And, it will wear down your kids, so they sleep well.
Sand is amazing. The Bible refers to sand on a seashore, in an effort to explain how God cares for us. He cares for us even though we are one among many, and very insignificant in comparison to all of creation. Imagine that? A creator, God of the universe, looking down and knowing so much detail about our lives that he can find us like finding a grain of sand in the dune.
In our dune climb, we had a whole other kind of spiritual encounter. My husband and I had climbed this dune during our honeymoon, almost 20 years ago. I remember it being a bit of climb even then, still in my 20's. But, this time, we returned with 3 kids and almost 20 years older. The kids took off, and I struggled huffing and puffing behind, till I reached the first huge top. I was quite happy with that. But, the kids wanted to go on. We told them that they could climb to the top of the next hill.....Their "top" was different than what we thought the "top" was. They went out of sight and out of hearing range, as we screamed their names with no response. My husband took off up the steep incline that neither of us wanted to climb. The sun was going down, and we knew we needed to get our kids back before it was dark. We did, but not without some P&P (panic & prayer). There's just nothing like being on top of a sandhill in a town you're unfamiliar with, when the sun is going down, and not knowing how far away your kids have wandered.
Long story short - We found them, at the top of the hill we told them they could climb, only they had continued on to another "top" which they claimed is where they were originally headed, to which we had approved. All is well. We are all safe and sound. But, not without a spiritual lesson to me with our sand:
Like God cares for us, even though we are like a grain of sand; we cared for our kids the same way. Among that sand pile, we so dearly enjoyed climbing on our honeymoon and couldn't wait for the day when we could bring our kids to share in the fun - we were insignificant grains of sand, together forming a significant family in love with our creator.
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