Finding speakers is always a tricky business. For our last week of summer camp Scruffy was able to get Java, a former camp counselor, to take a week off of work and drive up from Bridgeport to speak to the kids. His work gave him the time off until…they didn’t. They changed their minds and told him he couldn’t go.

Um….

So they switched the camp schedule around and Java drove here every day after work. He was exhausted and using up tons and tons of gas, but besides that it was working. The lessons were good, the kids were listening, things were snapping into place until… they didn’t.

Wednesday is lakeday. We have to do the lesson either in the morning before we leave or at the lake. Why??? After a day in the water and the sun the campers all fall asleep if we have chapel late at night. But Java would be at work during those times. So he handed over some morning devotional material, took a look at his speaking notes, sighed, and kept them to himself. There was no use giving those to Scruffy, they would just have to skip it.

Scruffy was just about to run up to the amphitheater for Morning Jam (A loud and enthusiastic time of singing that occurs in the morning) when he felt that they really should have something a little bit meatier than just a devotion. He decided to share one of the stories of king David like Java had been doing, but which one? The devotion was on David-the man after God’s own heart. David had done a lot of terrible things, how exactly could Scruff show the kids that he was a man after God’s own heart. Then Scruffy recalled how David spared Saul’s life again and again even after he tried to kill him. He decided to read the story of David sparing Saul a second time, emphasizing this verse.

 I Samuel 26:21a—“Then Saul said, ‘I have sinned. Come back, David my son. Because you considered my life precious today…”

Even after all that he had done, God considered Saul’s life as precious…and so did David.

And so with just a scant few minutes of preparation Scruffy walked up to the amphitheater and told the kids this story about David. How just like God, he considered the life of his enemy as precious. The way the God considers out lives as precious even when we were His enemies. Then the campers went off to their devotions.

Later in the day, when Java showed up at the lake after work, Scruff mentioned the story that he had told the kids. He didn’t want to mess up Java’s speaking schedule so he warned him that the kids had just heard this particular Bible passage.

Java stared at him, stunned.

“That was the passage I had planned for today. It was in my notes.”

The notes that he had looked at with disappointment, because he would not be able to share them with the kids. The notes he had given up on and put back in his bag. But God knew all of this.

Work schedules, lake day fatigue, and last minute blunderings do not stop God. David considered Saul’s life precious and the campers needed to know that. So God brushed all of our difficulties aside and brought His Glory among us in the form of a simple story that refused to go unheard.

Boo Boo