“Our Ski Trip to Breck” (God cards #13, 16, and 17)

The Hagan family adventured to Breckenridge, Colorade this first week of January to ski and study with some family friends of ours. The intent – ski like crazy by day and experience the God cards together by night.

We were together with 3 other families that had never heard of the God cards. So, it was an incredible time to share this part of the Plan with them and converse together on this great topic of Father God.

Night 1 at Glen Eyrie Castle in Colorado Springs (amazing!) – We began with our story, the story of The Whole Peach and our prayer for the week – encounter the person of God as he explains himself in his word, and oh yeah, ski like crazy! We all wrote our names on construction paper so that we could recreate a family board for the week (see the tool Post), and we did some Talk questions just to get the party started (see the tool Talk). We gave each family the God cards and a Seeds CD – Seeds of Character (see the tool Sing) and listened to track 1 – “More than Conquerors.” Last, we prayed into our week together and Father’s speaking to all of us! It was our hope that in the drive to Breckenridge the families could listen to the CD and get familiar with the God cards.

Night 2 in Breckenridge – We put our names around the fireplace (there were 16 of us!), listened again to the Seeds CD and anyone that had the verse memorized shared the wealth! We talked a bit more about the God cards and how they came to be, and then everyone was given a piece of construction paper or some playdough. We put a piece of paper in the middle of our names that read “God” and then invited everyone to draw a picture or create a symbol to describe how they see God. It was awesome to go around and share stories. Many of us as adults had 2 different pictures – one of responsibility and God bossing us to a movement into relationship and God loving on us. And of course, the children’s pictures were without filters and full of great thoughts! We prayed into these pictures and then gave every family their work for the remaining evenings.

For nights 3-5, we were going to discuss one God card per night, and each of the families had to choose the card to discuss but couldn’t share it until their night! It was going to be so much fun to encounter together what Father wanted to say to all of us!

Night 3 – The Talk tool had become a hit, so we did some questions and danced a bit to the Seeds CD! Then, the Gunn family gave us their God card choice after the appropriate drum roll – God card #13. God is my Friend. Just like you would do at your home as a family, we went to that card, read the verses together and listened. Everyone had some construction paper and markers and just created a visual or some words for what they heard or the picture they captured as the verses were being read. We took some time to create and then shared our pictures! Incredible! It is so simple but always so rich to capture a moment resonating on the person of Father God as he describes himself in the word. There is great power to seek him in his word and listen!

Night 4 and 5 – Much the same! The Collins family chose #17 – God is my Gatorade and the Moore family chose #16 – God is my friend. Just like Night 3, we read verses, created pictures and shared stories. Rich, rich time! I think one of these nights I just gave everyone playdough and instead of drawing, we created symbols with the playdough. Always fun! But in the simplicity of a God card, a picture, some verses and his speaking, we shared the time and space together as fellow pilgrims on our journey towards home (Psalm 84:5).

I will never forget one of the Dads in the group sharing at the end of the week that he had always known God, but “these cards give me pictures that focus on how he wants a relationship with me. They make me want to seek him.” I mean skiing like crazy is great and all, but it just doesn’t get any better than this!

“Faith is a redirecting of our sight, a getting out of the focus of our own vision and getting God into focus. . . . When we lift our inward eyes to gaze upon God we are sure to meet friendly eyes gazing back at us, for it is written that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout all the earth. The sweet language of experience is ‘Thou God seest me’ (Genesis 16:13). When the eyes of the soul looking out meet the eyes of God looking in, heaven has begun right here on this earth.” The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer