One summer, for some reason I have yet to discover, I volunteered to be a summer camp counselor and resident musician for a group of 23 pre-teenagers. It was a trying time, that loooong week, but we all made it through somehow without maiming or killing anyone.

On departure day, the vast majority of the campers were crying, sad to be leaving camp. I take that as a sign that they at least had a good time. But just so you know that every great once in a while, we ARE accorded the rare privilege of seeing the seeds beginning to sprout, let me share this with you.

On the last day of camp, I went around to several of the campers and asked them, since I was music director for the week, which songs they had gotten the most enjoyment out of singing. I expected their choices to be the rowdy, lively songs we had sung, like "Pharaoh, Pharaoh," (sung to the tune of the 1960's rock and roll classic, "Louie, Louie,") or "Rise and Shine," or "Do Lord." But the song most of the campers I asked said they would remember most from camp was a little praise chorus I had taught them, "Lord, You Are." Do you know it? It's a quiet, beautiful hymn of praise.

Lord, you are more precious than silver;
Lord, you are more costly than gold.
Lord, you are more beautiful than diamonds.
Nothing I desire compares to you.

Now, you can call me a dreamer, or call me a cockeyed optimist. You can say I was grabbing at straws, trying desperately to see something positive coming from that difficult week. But I think I saw a few sprouts that day. Will they grow? God only knows. But what joy there was in the sowing!