Meditation on tents

Tent Pitching

After college graduation, a group of us went to upper New York State to canoe and camp. We pitched tents in the wilderness of the islands and lakes around us. Our celebration was to get away from the tensions of exams, wrestling with life goals (“what are you going to do after you graduate?”) and life as we knew it. The desire to get away from it all is still around, and probably will be as long as there are houses and weekends—especially national holiday weekends. People are taking their tents and driving to all points of the compass to get away to something different.

God appreciates that, but God also does it differently when it comes to tents. Tents are a well-known commodity in scripture. Abraham entertained there, Jacob moved too meet his brother with them, the Hebrews marched through the desert with them, and Paul was known to be a tent-maker. These temporary structures were built for travel as well as a place away from the elements, even while being in the midst of them.

In the Gospel of John, what was translated “dwelt” (v. 14) also means, “pitched a tent.” Verse 14 could be read this way: “And the word became flesh and God pitched a tent among us.” That God chose to be with the people makes where that happened a sacred place. God is with us, pitching a tent with us wherever we go.

Besides the sacredness of the space, there also is the idea of the temporariness of the structure. No footings were dug and filled to keep the tent from shifting. When the tent was packed, the earth was once again revealed. Sacredness did not move with the tent, it stayed with the earth. The earth was sacred. It still is.

If God cared for the earth in revelatory acts of pitching a tent, are we not also called to care for the earth—because it is sacred? What can you do today to demonstrate you honor the sacredness of the earth?

John 1
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, _ and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. _
10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, _ and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and pitched a tent among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, _ full of grace and truth.