The theme of this past middle school fall retreat was “Created for Relationship.” We chose this as a theme for two reasons: 1) to address and counter the debilitating lie that we are our own, the masters of our own lives, and 2) to give the students the big-picture view of the story of the Gospel unfolding in history – and their place in it!

Here is what I mean: The triune God, existing perfectly in himself, created us out of love and for love. God created you to be in a flourishing, perfect relationship with himself, others, creation, and yourself. This is what we see in Genesis 1 and 2! Adam and Eve together walking in the cool of the garden with their Creator, unashamed, living in shalom with the rest of creation knowing who they are as image-bearers.

However, as we know from Genesis 3 and the rest of Scripture, we do not find ourselves in perfect, whole relationships. The world is broken, we are broken, and our relationships are broken due to the sin in and all around us. This is why God’s promise to send a Savior, Jesus Christ, to bring about atonement due for our sins and our redemption into shalom is such Good News. We are justified and adopted in Christ. Just like we see in all the stories of Scripture, so we find ourselves: seen, known, loved, forgiven, set free, and eventually glorified by a covenantal God. We see in the person of Jesus Christ the healing of all these broken relationships. Because of Jesus, we have access to the Father through his Spirit with the promise that we will be united with him in glory. In Jesus we see the healing of broken relationships (Mark 5:1-20; Luke 17:11-19; John 4), the restoration of a broken creation (Luke 8:22–25; John 9:1-11), and a unified, whole self imaged after our Creator (Rev. 21:1-7).

Further beauty of this Gospel reality is that Christ’s Spirit indwells us and unites us together. And what a gift to witness the workings of His Spirit in and through our middle school students. I wish that everyone could witness the conversations that are had and little (but large) acts of kindness and service that happen over retreat weekend.

From Spencer encouraging his friends to focus on the devotional, to Huddy generously sharing his snacks, to Anna inviting others into the group, to Reid being a team player and celebrating others, to Louisa encouraging girls around her, to Victoria faithfully helping Ada in her kayak, to Ada publicly thanking Victoria for her kindness and friendship, to Libby, Ivey, and Ann Carter applying the talks to their conversation, to the ways Nathan and Aaron laugh with and delight in the middle schoolers in front of them. It is indescribably powerful to witness the volunteer leaders embody the very love of God they speak of to these middle schoolers.

What we loved most about the theme “Created for Relationship” is that what we were reading and talking about that weekend we, as middle schoolers and adults, were getting to live out and affirm in one another. We were getting to live into what the psalmist declared: “how good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters dwell in unity!”