On the bus ride to Norfolk I sat in front of two guys who were having the strangest but also most relate-able conversation. The Great Escapes were at Letton Hall, and are a end of Lent term youth camp equivalent.
We were sorted into our rooms, and quite soon after that we had dinner, The lovely catering team had made special arrangements for my meals - including a vegan shepherd's pie, a chickpea and sweet potato curry, a vegan pasta bake, copious amounts of muesli and bran flakes in oat milk for breakfast, and free access to the fruit stash. (apples all day every day)
Our first talk that night was by Pete Gaskell, who was covering a series on 2 Timothy for the duration of the camp, starting with our duty to guard the gospel.
On the second day we played the Wide Game, where you stick a sock in the back of your trousers/leggings/pants/shorts and try to keep it there, and pull socks from your opposing teams. You also have rubber bands, which are your lives, which you forfeit every time your sock is pulled, and you gain every time you pull a sock (and you can restock your lives at your teams base, so if, like me, you're rubbish at sock-pulling and are constantly being pulled, you can refuel) And then there are coloured bands, which are bombs, which you try to drop in your opposing teams bases without getting your sock pulled (which means you have to return to your base to get your life-band restored) And then there are eggs, which are hidden to be found, or stashed in other teams bases to be stolen.
All very complicated.
I realised quite quickly that I was rather terrible at sock pulling and ended up getting my sock pulled countless times. Probably the only thing I could do well was run really fast around people and avoid being caught and drop coloured band bombs in other bases.
Nonetheless, it was huge amounts of fun.
Rich gave two talks that day on God's Word - how we have a huge gulf between our selves and God because of Sin, and how Jesus steps in to bridge that gulf - and of course (John 1:1) Jesus is the Word, made flesh.
On Day 3 we went for a long walk around the nearby fields, which resulted in terribly muddy shoes and meeting an Au pair from Canada.
Throughout the camp we also did an unstructured, small group discussion on Jonah. This was probably my favourite part of the camp! (it even beat the pasta bake) My group became rather stuck over the concept of God 'changing His mind' over Ninevah. He seemed to first threaten total destruction, and then relent and forgive. However, when we factored in God's omniscience - the fact that He knew the Ninevites could repent - His initial threat seemed both to make sense since it catalysed repentance, and also to not make sense, since it meant God in essence went back on his word. And surely God can't lie?
We talked in circles round this problem. How? Why? Justice? Mercy? Foreknowledge? Free Will? So many of our fundamental questions about God's character emerged.
The funny thing was, however, that we were only looking at one facet of God's character. God is a tripartite God - he exists constantly and inextricably in relation with Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the Trinity. And none of us had thought about Jesus.
When we realised we'd forgotten to remember Jesus, suddenly everything fell into place. Because if Jesus sacrifice many years later, God could forgive Ninevah and refrain from punishing them for their sins. Because the salvation promise of Jesus covers all the ages, God remained completely just - someone (Jesus) was still punished for sin - and yet also entirely merciful, in his forgiveness of Ninevah.
How apt, that we forgot Jesus. That is something that I do all too often, every day, in every decision and activity. I want to be a person who doesn't need a bracelet or a charm to remind me to wonder what Jesus would do in every situation. I don't want to be a person who only remembers to pray when everything seems to unravel, or disaster strikes.
Remember Jesus.
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