I am on vacation at this time and while I am beaching it up I will have guest blogs once a week. Today’s blog is from Adrian Greyling who is a financial planner,  husband to Shawna, and father to Leah, Ian and Avery.

As a family, we enjoy camping, and got the opportunity to do so recently.  Although Shawna took care of 99% of the packing, it’s my responsibility (mostly) to get it all in the van (or into the pop-up trailer we drag around).  Since our office closes at 1:00pm on Fridays over the course of the summer, we had the opportunity to make our way to Presqu’ile Park a little bit earlier.  After getting home from the office nice and early, I set a (very arbitrary) deadline of 2:30pm to be on the road.  Of course we missed that deadline by about half an hour, but it was an arbitrary deadline anyway, and if traffic wasn’t too bad, we’d still hit the campground with plenty of time to set up and get dinner underway.

Barreling down the 401, I had a revelation.  Nope, not the good kind either…  After Shawna and I were discussing what was on the menu for Friday evening, (hamburgers & hotdogs) it dawned on me that I forgot the portable BBQ in the garage.  Too bad that wasn’t the worst of what I’d forgotten…  I had also forgotten to bring the keys to the trailer.  Now we’re hurtling down the 401 with a big brick on wheels behind us that’s eating into my gas mileage and has no useful function when we get to the campground, except make it look like we belong there.

At this point, camping isn’t the enjoyable getaway it usually is…

After setting up camp, (which included using an axe to open locked compartments on the trailer) we stuck to the menu of burgers and hotdogs, although the cooking method, (that is, frying!) left much to be desired.  (Nothing like draining your hamburger on paper-towel before eating it!)

Thankfully, the weather forecast looked great all weekend.

Then the rain came on Saturday morning.  Not a light sprinkle the kids can still play in, but a rain more akin to drought relief.  Camping in the rain is, well, unpleasant.  You can tolerate mosquitoes, you can build fires when it’s cold, but when everything is wet, camping isn’t fun anymore.

I was sitting across from Avery as we ate Cheerios for breakfast together, listening to the rain and wondering how long it would take to become stir crazy from being cooped up in a little trailer when I looked out of the plastic “window” at the trees.  At this point, 16 hours into our camping trip, the beauty of the park (even in the rain!) kind of caught me off guard.  It’s no wonder it’s a popular place to visit, I thought, God really put some sparkle into this little corner of His creation.  It reminded me of the cliché, “Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.”  In my case, being self-absorbed with my “camping woes” was blinding me to one of the primary enjoyments of camping; seeing God’s creation in all it’s beauty, up close and personal!  It made me wonder how many other blessings I’ve missed that God puts squarely in front of me to notice.  Or that I take for granted because I’m staring at my own shoes.  The Psalmist wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”  Our lives should declare God’s glory too, and if we’re willing to count our blessings, we’ll quickly run out of fingers and toes as we realize how incredibly blessed we are!  Self-absorption can’t do that!

Question: What do you do to remind you to look for God’s blessings in your life?  Leave your comment below.