Last year I wrote a blog post about all the things God was teaching me in the weeks leading up to VBS, as my mind was scattered and trying to remember a thousand details. This year is no different. It seems that when I am the most stretched, I am the most dependent, and my senses are heightened. In this place, there are many lessons God wants to teach me. He doesn’t just use my involvement in Vacation Bible School to make for a transformative week for kids and volunteers. No, every person matters to Him. In His grace, He uses VBS to change and sanctify me, as well.
Since January I have been immersed in this year’s VBS theme, "Breaker Rock Beach.” When I watched the preview video a full year ago, I didn’t recognize the setting as being Oregon. I just knew that a giant rock was a central image, as it represented truth that stands firm even when surrounded by shifting sands and breaking waves. The further I dug into the content for this year’s theme, the more I knew it was important and the more invested I became in sharing this message with children. Our lessons this year teach that truth comes from God, not from the world, and each day uses stories from Scripture to explore how God’s truth is different from what the world says is truth. As a mom and a children’s pastor, I desperately see the need for these lessons, and I am moved by the potential that this upcoming week holds for impacting little lives. And even for those of us who know this truth, we need to be reminded.
Last fall, I started researching a senior trip for Brennan that we were planning to take as a family after graduation. Brennan is a travel enthusiast and an Eagle Scout who appreciates nature. For years he has talked of wanting to visit Oregon, so it seemed like the perfect place for us to all go together. Somewhere in the research process I realized that this year’s VBS theme was the Pacific Northwest, but I’m not sure I had yet made the connection between Cannon Beach / Haystack Rock (the rock icon depicted in “Breaker Rock Beach”) and Vacation Bible School. (Can you tell I didn’t grow up watching The Goonies?) But as I began to map out an itinerary for this epic family trip — our last one with all three kids living at home — I made the connection. That crazy rock I have been staring at for months and months is the exact place where He was taking us. I will stand at the base of that exact rock a week and a half after finishing VBS and one month before sending my son off into the world, and He will remind me: His truth is for me too.
For the past few weeks, while working on final VBS details, I have found myself revisiting the Psalms of Ascent. In case you are unfamiliar with them, these fifteen psalms, numbers 120–134 in our Bibles, were sung by the Jewish people as they made their way to Jerusalem each year for three different festivals. God gave His people these festivals as a way of helping them to remember who they were and, more importantly, who He is. I didn’t choose this study; it is just the next one that was planned for the She Reads Truth community. But just a few days ago, on day eight of my reading plan, I opened to Psalm 125, and I had to smile. Psalm 125 begins, “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion. It cannot be shaken; it remains forever.” I thought about the Jewish community looking at that mountain — that giant “rock”, if you will — as they walked toward the temple. Jerusalem was a high point in elevation, so the people were sure to be looking up at mountains as they made their journey. And these mountains had to have been a picture of God to them. Mount Zion was solid, secure, immovable, consistent, firm, and true, just like God Himself. Mount Zion was not like the sand, ever shifting and insecure; it was not like the sea, restless and unsettled and unstable; it was not like the wind, unpredictable and inconsistent. It was true. Just like we will use the icon of Haystack Rock to show kids that God’s truth stands firm in a world of shifting sands.
I, too, am moving forward, eyes on the horizon, looking at the Rock that stands the test of time to remind me of what He has done and what He can do. VBS season is full of challenges, and some days the journey seems long and requires more energy than I think I have. But God loves me enough to provide specific Scripture that speaks to the journey. He loves me enough to send me across the entire country to stand beneath a giant visual symbol as a beautiful reminder of His steadfastness during a season of change. And He loves me enough to send over one hundred seventy-five little lives to Fellowship Bible Church to intersect with mine for a week, as He shows each of them that He writes their story, too. It is all very profound and lovely. Join me in praying for these children and for the eighty-four volunteers who will also make the journey. He is doing so much.
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When you’re tempted and you’re tried by the storms of life
There’s a place that you can hide at Breaker Rock Beach
In a world of shifting sand
On Christ we stand
He’s the only perfect plan
Breaker Rock Beach
There is a rock that stands the test of time
Where the wind and waters rise and waves are always breakin’
There is a rock where we can build our lives
His name is Jesus Christ
And we will not be shaken
At Breaker Rock Beach
Do not be conformed by this age
But be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you
May discern what is the good pleasing and perfect will of God