Into The Night

Spring Canyon National Park is well named. It sits on the south shore of Lake Roosevelt just to the east of Grand Coulee Dam, an oasis in the high desert. Pat and I love to camp there in the late summer for the daytime warmth, the nighttime insect chorus, the view of the lake, and the locally grown produce. Deer and quail regularly visit the lush campground, which is largely deserted after Labor Day.

We usually take some or all of our pets with us on our “camping” trips. Their antics liven up the days and often provide grist for stories. Squeak, our wannabe barn cat, accompanied the two dogs and us on this late summer outing.

Squeak is an opportunist who has a history of waiting for suitable moments to escape the confines of our RV. On one cross-country trip she escaped three times—twice in Minnesota and once in Montana. Each time she returned of her own free will and we began to be less concerned that she would actually run away. Now that she is an older cat, she is usually content to look out the windows and observe the passing show.

The nights were warm, the dogs were outside most of the time, and Squeak—possibly feeling left out—seized the opportunity to rush the door as I stepped outside at dusk one evening. True to form, she didn’t run off... she simply stayed maddeningly out of reach. She would bound up to me out of the gathering darkness, rub up against my leg, and then disappear again before I could grab her. It was as though she needed to flaunt her “freedom,” but still needed the reassurance that I was there waiting for her.

This game went on for about an hour, and then she simply disappeared into the night. Squeak’s disappearance wasn’t our real concern—it was her lack of awareness of the danger that had us alarmed. Rattlesnakes and coyotes lurked in the darkness just beyond the borders of our campsite. Owls perched in the trees. These predators threatened her safe return.

Many of us aren’t so different from Squeak. Disappointments, boredom, responsibilities, stress, getting older—a host of things cause us to want to seek our “freedom” from whatever we perceive to be confining us. We tell ourselves—and God—that we know what we are doing. We don’t see the danger waiting to ambush us as we stray farther away from where we know we should be. We may even occasionally return to make certain that people will still welcome us and that God “still cares.” But we stay just out of reach of making a commitment that might limit our personal freedom… because we really care only about ourselves.

Squeak did eventually return. It isn’t too late for you to do the same.

Pastor Kit