When I was a kid the highlight of the month of June was the Sunday School picnic. Because I lived on a dairy farm we did not take summer vacations. So an afternoon at a local lake was pretty special. To tell you the truth, looking back from my adult perspective, it wasn’t even a very nice lake. It was small and the bottom of the lake mucky but when you’re a kid …who cares! It signaled a day of fun and frolic.

 

The afternoon always involved a huge pot luck lunch; there was swimming and group games. I can still remember my annual surprise to watch the old ladies hike up their skirts and kick their shoe in the air to see who could kick the farthest. It seemed so out of character for the women of the church! The men would hammer nails into logs to see who could get the nail in with the least number of hits. And we kids mostly just ran around shrieking. Ah, nostalgia.

 

This Sunday we will be creating memories for a whole new generation. The picnic concept has changed slightly. We are an age of convenience and we need to streamline life. Our picnic will be in the back yard. The food will be ready for us when the service is over. But, there will be games for the kids on the back lawn and the Gospel Band will be providing the toe-tapping music for those of us that like to sit on our lawn chairs and sing along or chat to our neighbor.

 

Church picnics are the markers of the turning of the season. Spring turns to summer, school days turn to summer holidays, and the hectic life slows to the summer pace. These are the events that make memories. In years to come, on a lazy summer afternoon a young parent will turn to his or her parents and say, “Remember when we had the church picnic in the back yard at the church? The yard seemed so much bigger then!”

 

It will be a great Sunday when we share in an age-old tradition and forge some new memories for the youngest generation.

 

Do you have picnic memories? I would love to hear them.