So I just got back from a tent-camping trip with my family of 7…that’s right- I wrote seven. 2 adults + 5 kids + a tent = perfect chaos, and some hilarious moments too. Unfortunately, the trip was meant to be a five day excursion. We came back after 3. Besides just the incomprehensibleness of it all, it rained like the Flood thus revealing ALL of the leaks in our tent. Yipee. My husband and I realized how woefully out of practice our camping skills were.

While my 2 & 3 year olds tried to catch squirmy critters in the creek (while pulling themselves up on poison ivy), my 7 year old kept crawling in and out of the tent (just for fun), and my 11 year old proceeded to develop a pyromaniac mentality – my 9 year old was having his own trial. Insects.

If there happens to be a mosquito within 100 feet of him, it will inevitably find him. He hates bugs, especially the biting kind. I’m not too fond of them either, but I rarely end up looking like I have the measles. In the middle of his exasperation, he screams, “Why did Adam and Eve have to sin? I hate bugs.”

In that one statement, he revealed his good theology. Before the Fall, humanity knew perfection and peace, but afterwards…invasion of the bugs – all the things that annoy, frighten, or hurt us became a reality. Not only that, they became frequent visitors with no respecter of persons.

Right now, our family is dealing with my mother-in-law’s dementia. I told the children last night that “even if Grammy forgets who you are in her head, she will always know who you are in her heart. She might not remember your name, but she’ll feel your love for her and know you through that love.” As her mind distances itself from her body, she moves closer and closer to Heaven, and as my nine-year-old says (with a sigh) – There are NO bugs in Heaven’s garden.

I guess some of us long for pearly gates, peaceful walks by the River of Life, and seeing our Savior. My nine-year-old sees Heaven as a Garden without bugs.