I'm not sure who left the tracks. I thought the one on the left was a racoon. It seemed small and agile compared the the boot print on the right. I compared it to pictures online of raccoon tracks, but was not convinced, but it doesn't look like a classic dog print either. I would love feedback from people who know more about tracking than I do.
We went to a new camp facility for Youth Camp this year and I tried to spend some time exploring the grounds. One morning I walked slowly around the lake at the center. The whole path is about a mile. I listened and watched. There were big fish in the lake who splashed away when I got near. Birds teased me from the tops of the trees. Insects filled the air with a pulsing wave of sound.
I saw big deer prints and deer. I saw the tiny flicks of insects legs and insects. I saw the curving swishes of snakes and some snakes. One snake was right in the middle of our walkway, so we decided he either had to leave or die. We were pretty sure it was a copperhead. Google image search confirmed the identification. Someone finally found a stick long enough and I coaxed him to leave our area.
In the woods, I saw small pads of concrete testifying to the long ago presence of a building. In another area, I found a mound of wood from some torn down facility. It was clear that the land had some history.
I wondered at all the things that had happened in that space, all the things that were happening late at night when we were asleep. The place was alive and rich. People continue to meet God in places just like this camp. The ancients called them "Thin Places." They were areas where people had gone for years and met with God. This week at camp we experienced a thin place, where the distance between our world and God's world is very small. We saw the stars blazing in the night sky. We saw smiles radiating out of our beautiful youth. We had a Psalm 8 week. It was beautiful. The footprints I saw were God's as God lead us closer to himself.