The Worst Vacation
Excerpt from Luke 12:32-40
"Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Reflection by Lillian Daniel
Recently, sitting around with my teenage daughter and her friends, the conversation turned to the topic of your worst vacation, ever. The girls told stories about rained-out days at the beach, missed airplanes and cars breaking down on the hot summer highway. There were stories of animals breaking into the food at a campsite and cousins breaking arms falling off playground sets. But oddly enough, the mood in the room got brighter and lighter with every story. You could tell that these stories of vacations gone wrong were more alive in their minds than the perfect vacations where things went as planned. The worst vacations provide the best stories.
When we plan a vacation, we have a vision of how it is supposed to go. Much of that vision is shaped by the consumer culture around us. A free copy of a travel magazine is suddenly being sent to my house. I am not planning a vacation or a big trip right now, but suddenly, each time it arrives in the mail, I want to be. I want to lie on the beaches they show on the cover, and eat at the restaurants they feature. But none of this is in my near future. I need to cancel that free magazine because it is costing me too much, in terms of packaged fantasies that distract me from my real life.
Back in real life, I remember how those fourteen-year-old girls delighted in telling the stories of the worst vacations, in hot smelly cars with dogs ill-equipped for road trips, and missed planes, and misadventures. In real life, I laugh with them, remembering ten cousins packed in a van with no air-conditioning, heading out for a mountain adventure on the hottest day of the year, and my mother who had chosen to wear high heeled sandals and fancy jewelry for a six hour hike. A bear approached us, and she used her jangly necklace to scare it away. It was a long day, and technically one where much went wrong, but we tell that story over and over again.
Prayer
God, clear my mind of the fantasy of the "perfect" vacation, and all the consumer yearnings I feel. Instead, let me build up a true treasure - memories of love, chaos, absurdity and adventure - to make me laugh in this life and beyond. Amen
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