“The Lord sure allowed for a lot of Feast Days/Weeks,” I thought as I read the OT laws and other outdated activities He established for pleasure. How could the people take four or five weeks away from home to travel, make sacrifices, eat, worship, and just have fun? I was reminded of my teen years when a week of “camp meeting” was the highlight of my year. God just wants to be the star and He knows how to have fun without sin! With that in mind, I am doing a cut and paste from Nov. 2016, called Early Morning Campmeeting. This camp was in Woodland Park, Colo. Happened each summer for about forty years – 1940’s through ’80s, maybe.

Early morning saints are bundled up near six o’clock to go to the tabernacle which is heated only by a large wood burning stove on this July day in the 1940’s.     Each of my family are just beginning to stir at that early hour.  Nine year old brother asleep in the loft; Daddy just put the baby in his nice warm place beside mom; outside by the cabin Lil Gram is in the tent with me.  She stirs because she wanted to get up for that early service.  I roll over to catch some of her warmth but don’t plan to get out of bed yet.  I hesitate to get up but I know it will get too cold in the pallet when she goes.

Inside daddy has a fire going in the small wood stove.  He has the coffee percolator on one of the two stove lids.  The lid lever is in the indented hole in the other lid so he can lift that lid to add more kindling. The percolator is small since he and Lil Gram are the only coffee drinkers.

My body signals a call for me to climb out of bed, don a robe and go to the women’s outhouse.  A miserable way to start the day.  But water, cool and refreshing, from the tin cup in the family’s water bucket sends an inviting signal to run into the cabin. I quickly choose clothes for the day.  But hold on a bit, I’m not anxious to come out of the warmed robe.  We drape cold clothes over a chair by the fire to make them more accommodating.

The seven o’clock bell peals three rings signaling that breakfast is ready. We hurry but find the line has filled the building and has already reached the outside.  Not too bad though as we find neighbors and friends to chat with.  The Bible says the first shall be last and I consider that must be true, but not very fair, as I see the early morning worshipers coming to stand last in line!  If God were fair wouldn’t he reward them by making them first in line!  So percolates thoughts in my eleven-year-old head.  I find even grown-ups sometimes judge God by such measures!

And just think, God planned for the Israelites to do this kind of thing four or five times a year! I think God called for “unleavened” bread for all these times. Leaven signifies sin. So no sinning. Sin brings bad consequences! Let’s be holy in our pleasures.

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