Jesus Jumping on the Trampoline?
Becky Bader In the 60’s, if you were a Baptist girl growing up in Bellville, the Girls’ Auxiliary Camp in Palacios, Texas was an event eagerly looked forward to each summer. A few years ago, Ian and I drove through the camp and it hadn’t changed too much. The flagpole where we gathered each morning was still there and the dining hall where we ate the yucky eggs and the tabernacle where we worshiped, but I didn’t see the trampolines, and that’s what I remember the most. The trampolines and the snack bar and Marge Caldwell.
Marge was the highlight. Marge made Jesus real. After an evening listening to Marge’s excitement about who Jesus was to her, I’d be excited, too. The Holy Spirit – through Marge Caldwell – spoke to countless girls each summer at that camp, stirring many of us for a lifetime of loving the Lord.
But then each morning, after we gathered at the flagpole and ate the nasty eggs in the dining hall, we’d go to Bible study and I’d be bored, wishing, instead, that I was jumping on the trampoline or hanging out at the snack bar. OK. So I said it out loud. In fact, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about it. As a young girl, I was bored at Bible study.
Yes, it was early in the morning and I was young, but I could see the snack bar and the trampolines from where we studied and that’s where I wanted to be. Now I wonder, though, if maybe that’s where Jesus would have been, too. Just a thought. Maybe Jesus would have eating sweet tarts and jumping on that trampoline with me. I have no doubt that while he was there, he would have been telling me a story about how life was like jumping on a trampoline, but he most definitely would have been in the thick of it. In the fun of it. Or that’s my thought anyway.
Ironically, I’m a Bible study teacher and for decades I’ve found the Bible to be the most thrilling book in the entire world! It’s fascinating and suspenseful. It grips my soul and won’t let go. I love studying the Bible! And it’s not boring! In fact, reality TV has nothing on the Bible, which is full of very real people jumping on their own trampolines, falling off at times, climbing back on, and falling off again. It’s full of men and women filling up on junk food at the snack bar instead of going for the good stuff, even though the good stuff is sometimes disguised as eggs. And it’s full of flawed individuals meeting a forgiving, perfect God while doing their own jumping around each day. And it’s also full of grateful and grace-filled people like Marge Caldwell, women and men who were so thrilled with Jesus Christ that they were practically jumping with joy and ready to explode if they couldn’t show others how he had transformed their lives.
Marge Caldwell, the snack bar, and the trampolines. Such great memories for me that I had to jump up in the middle of the night and write them down. Some memories are just too good to forget!
Reader Comments (2)
Baptist GA's, Marge Caldwell, summer camp.....been there, done that!!
Love,
M
Yeah? Yeah! How fun! Learned something new about you, little buddy! :)