Of Boys and Boulders

All the boys in camp reacted the same way upon arrival. Their eyes went straight to the boulder that towered behind our campsites, and they really couldn't think about doing anything else until they had ascended its sides and stood atop it as conquerors, looking down.

Five dads brought eleven boys, ages 3 to 15, and at times all the boys were on the rock. As dads, we couldn't have asked for anything better than to have such a feature at the edge of our camping area. We needed not ever wonder where our boys were. If they weren't around the campfire (which, of course, had its own draw to the men and boys alike), they were atop the rock. Simple as that. It was far more interesting than any playground that any man could have built in the same space, and its appeal was the same for every age of boy in the group.

When I think about it, any time Nathaniel and I go trout fishing and he disappears from view, all I have to do to find him is look to the top of the biggest rock that's nearby. Of course, my yearning to climb a big rock hasn't gone away. I just can't run up the sides of them the way Nathaniel or Asher can. I have to climb carefully, taking care that my glasses don't fall off and planning my entire route so I don't end up like a cat, stuck in a place where I can't get down!

It would seem God made boulders for boys to climb because it's obvious he's put within boys a desire to climb to the top of a really big rock.