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Oct 12, 2024 06:00am

Butter Spread Over Too Much Toast

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My husband and I borrowed my parents’ RV and went camping for a week. Now, when I say that, it means much more than it sounds. We have 3 children. Two are big enough that they don’t really need us to take care of them daily, but our youngest has special needs. Paired with that, I had a brain tumor mostly removed a little over 2 years ago, which has caused me to have seizures. That means I can’t drive, and my husband is constantly watching me in anticipation of another seizure. My husband is the breadwinner to a family of 5, as well, working 50 hours a week, most weeks. To say the man is spread thin would be an understatement.

Our oldest had already moved out. Our middle child was headed on a trip to Connecticut with her friend. So, we dropped our youngest off at a medical camp for the week and headed to the middle of nowhere, one of those cities you have to keep zooming in on to see on your google map. Our phones barely worked, the internet was non-existent, and we forgot the charger for our smart watches. We were the only campers on the whole 23 acre campground. It was perfection.

There is a “local” drive-in movie theater (about 20 minutes from where we were staying), but they were only showing kid movies the week we were there. My husband decided we would have our own outdoor movie. He had a huge inflatable screen, a projector, and a dvd queued up with Lord of the Rings. We got comfy with reclining lawn chairs, popcorn, candy, and blankets. It was serenely cool at night, despite it being July in Arkansas.

At the beginning of the movie, Bilbo Baggins said something like, “Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter scraped over too much bread. I feel I need a holiday, a very long holiday.” I looked at my husband and thought that must be what he feels like most days. I knew I felt a little like butter spread thin, just with the fatigue that comes with having a brain tumor…and just…well… life. I thanked God for a week of rest. He knew exactly what we needed and when we needed it most, and He continued to bring respite all week.

After our movie came to an end, my husband went to work turning off and gathering all of the things. I looked up into the sky, and I was overwhelmed by the stars-so many stars spread across the black canvas. My husband walked over and held me steady while we stared up at the beautiful twinkling sky, and we decided the night creatures sounded like they were being orchestrated. There was a loud, steady beat of cicadas, crickets, and other vibratingly twirting bugs, and the frogs joined in on a steady offbeat. It was just beautiful. Earth was singing and declaring God’s glory all around us.

Psalm 19:1-4 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of His hands. Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge. There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard. Their message has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun.”

I felt like God was letting us in on His song. He pitched a tent for the stars and the bugs and the frogs and a couple of humans stretched thin like butter spread over too much toast.