Out of the Tent - Into the Wilderness

September is closing fast and October is on the horizon. That means colder weather, snow is coming and the campground is closing. In just a couple days we have to load up the camper and move on out!

It's ok. We knew it was coming. We had planned initially for our house to be completed by now, but alas, bureaucracy has tied our hands in red tape. Now, we don't expect to be finished with the house and ready to move in until the middle of winter - a less than ideal time to move.

We are wonderfully blessed by a friend who has offered her home for our family of six to live in. Yet, even as we embark on this journey, and as blessed as we feel, I feel some trepidation. Will my four kids behave in someone else's house? Will they break something important? Will they be too loud? Will our friendship survive this? I know I must cast my anxieties on my Lord.

For the last three months we've been in our camper. It's not the same as a house. It's small and cramped, it's poorly insulated, the shower is never warm, the stove is a pain to light. But it was our space.

God has designed life to include many seasons. Right now, we are in the season of tenting, albeit in a 37-foot camper. The Israelites tented across the desert for 40 years. Sometimes they moved frequently, other times, they stayed in one place for years. We are moving out of the camper and the campground and we are moving into a home, but not our home. It's a bit like going out of the tent and into the wilderness, and yet the Lord is everywhere.

The Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkoth begins in just a few days. And as it begins, I had expected to be heading to our home, or still dwelling in our camper. For us, this year, it is our friend's lovely home. It is a temporary dwelling, and that is just what Sukkoth is designed to remind us of. We ought to remember that heaven is our dwelling and this earthly home is temporary. We ought to recall the Israelites wandering in the Wilderness on the way to their Promised Land. We ought to not expect to become too comfortable here, because the Lord is our Shelter and the Holy Spirit is our Comforter.

This Sukkoth, we will not be spending a few days dwelling in a temporary shelter, although we may still spend some time in the camper in the back yard, but we will certainly feel as much as ever, or maybe more than ever, that this is not our home.