Today begins our annual glamping weekend. Glamping is just a bit more glamorous than regular camping. Three families are involved. Two families pull their recreational vehicles to the third family’s house who don’t care for camping in the traditional sense of the word. We call their house the resort. It’s wonderful.

The families in attendance have grown from thirteen to twenty-one with one more on the way. We have shared weddings, funerals and births. Our children loved to hate one another as adoloscents and teens; two of them are married to one another.

This is the essence of a gaggle lived out. We worship together, we play together, we cry together, we build memories together. This week when I told my granddaughter, Finley, we were going camping and who would be there, her face lit up like the fourth of July. Already at two, she is learning the value of community.

Read: Hebrews 10:24-25

Gaggles are work. It takes effort to continue meeting together. Conflict between children makes meeting difficult; other times it’s conflict of schedules, jobs or hobbies. Press in! The results are worth the effort.