Have you ever tried to watch something
grow in real time? A tomato plant, a child, even
your own soul. You can stare for hours and
never see a single change. But come back a
day later … and something has shifted. Growth
happens quietly—without our permission,
without our awareness, without our control.
Jesus says the Kingdom of God grows like that
(Mark 4:26–29). Slow. Hidden. Unhurried. “The
seed sprouts and grows, though we do not know how.”
Recently at our annual retreat, camp board members held small slices
of wood cut from trees around Camp Emmaus. Each cross-section
told a story: rings wide and narrow, rings from years of drought and
years of abundance, rings formed during storms and during stillness.
And while the tree was alive, no one could see those rings forming.
They grew quietly, layer by layer, beneath the bark.
Camp ministry is the same. Every summer, every retreat, every porch
conversation, every late-night campfire prayer adds another ring.
Rings of courage in a teenager. Rings of healing in a family. Rings of
calling in a young adult who doesn’t yet know they’re called. Most of
the time, we don’t get to see the growth—but Christ is shaping it all
the same.
The outermost ring on a tree is always the newest one. The tree didn’t
plan it; it simply stayed rooted. And the ring appeared. You and I are
standing in our newest ring right now. God is forming something in us
—in this camp, in this season, in this community—that we can’t yet
see. But it’s happening. Quietly. Faithfully. Inevitably.
As we step into spring, may we ask not, “Is God doing anything here?”
but rather, “What ring is God forming in us now?”
As Emmaus begins forming our 78th ring this year, may it be another
ring of grace that tells both our story and God’s Love.
Respectfully in Christ,
Randall Westfall
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