Camping was an economical holiday—it didn’t cost very much—so of necessity our vacations were spent on the rivers around Poteau—Kiamichi, Blackfork, Little Fourche Maline, Big Fourche Maline, Little River, and Cucumber Creek. And it was generally the same crew that made the trips: Mother, Daddy, Betty Jean (my big sister) and I, Conrad and Ruby, Aunt Myrtle and Uncle John, and John Houston, my cousin, three days older than I.

If you’ve never been camping on the river in Oklahoma and you decide to make the trip, you’re going to have fun. Fun in spite of the poison oak and poison ivy, the ticks and chiggers, snakes, getting stuck finding just the right place to “pitch the tent,” the mosquitoes, the wild pigs, and enduring the unexpected showers! Betty doesn’t remember any of our excursions except the one where it rained and the river started rising and almost got up to our campsite. We were all crammed in the car. I was scared to death and we were really in danger because the roads were not passable—you’d sink fast with your boat trailer hitched to the car.

You’d have more fun during those rainy day outings if Uncle John were in the tent with you, sitting on his cot with his pipe in his mouth while you sat on yours—dejected, wet, and wishing you were at home. Uncle John was the optimist of our group and he always found some way to bolster our soggy spirits. He’d be sitting there in his suspenders, watching the rain pour down and would drawl out solemnly, “You know, Anabel, I believe it’s fairin’ in the East.” We spent a lot of time craning our necks to see if we could see the “fairin'”—but it was never really there. But that casual, optimistic statement kept us alert and watching the eastern sky.

Today, from my cot to yours, I solemnly say to you, “You know, I believe it’s fairin’ in the East.” You’ll have to put on your spiritual lenses to see it, but it really is. We know that His coming will first be seen illuminating the Eastern sky, and we know that His coming seems imminent to those of us sitting on our cots, waiting and watching. The weather all around looks pretty stormy and the river’s risin’. It helps keep up soggy spirits to have someone in the tent remind us, “It’s fairin’ in the East.”

What a wonderful promise and we watch expectantly—anticipating His appearance! Meanwhile, let’s go ahead and make camp, and cut bait, and fish—keeping right on with our schedules, but watching the Eastern sky carefully—”it’s fairin’.”

“For just as the lightning comes from the east,
and flashes even to the west,
so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”
Matthew 24: 27