Good morning. In my younger years one of my great joys in life was embracing the opportunity to sleep in a tent. For the most part, this was because if I was in a tent that meant that I was someplace remote, in the woods, with a lake a few steps away. Quite often, sleeping in a tent meant that I was in the Boundary Waters leading a group of paddlers in a wilderness experience. I realize that this isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, but for those of us who love such things, you can’t beat it.
That being said, I would also apply an old saying regarding tent life: “It is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” Without fail, after a week or so you get weary of sleeping on the ground inside a tent, where if it is raining you inevitably get wet, if it is mosquito season you inevitably are getting bit, and if there is a storm coming you pray that your tent will not get blown away. When you get home and are able to climb into your own bed, well…it never felt so good.
Tents are designed to meet the bare necessities, and they are designed to be temporary. This brings us to 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
We are, in this physical form, “Fearfully and wonderfully made.” Psalm 139:14. For that truth, we give praise to our Creator! But even as we give praise for God’s wonderful work in our physical creation, we should be even more thankful that this wonderfully constructed “tent” that is our body is not intended to be permanent. As the years go by this truth becomes increasingly evident. This tent that is our physical housing of our eternal soul deteriorates. Eventually, it wears out altogether. There are times when accidents, actions, and illnesses may cause the physical tent to be set aside much sooner than its design called for. This too is a part of our “tent” reality: even though it is “fearfully and wonderfully made” it is frail and subject to failure.
Paul’s words to the Corinthians are a reassurance of which we should all be mindful. He tells us that part of life in the “tent” is that we “groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.” He says that we “groan” because we are “being burdened.” It is God’s intention that we do not become so attached to this physical form that we are reluctant to accept the spiritual glory that awaits us. It is God’s intention that when the “tent” has served its purpose, we joyfully move on so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. The point is that the mortal, this “tent,” becomes completely overwhelmed by the eternal, an action that he refers to as swallowed up by life.
The apostle Paul was absolutely convinced of this, and it was this truth that moved him to say in the midst of physical suffering “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21
When we claim this understanding, and when these truths guide our thoughts, we come to understand how Paul can say, as we read above in 2 Corinthians 5:6, So we are always of good courage.
The truth is that we have a glorious form of life waiting for us in our heavenly eternity. That means that this physical form (while it is what we are used to) and we appreciate that it serves us so us well throughout our days of physical life, is only temporary.
I would like to say it again: We are not a body that houses a spiritual essence that we call our soul. We are spiritual beings that for a time are housed in a temporary and frail physical form. The reality of who and what we are is spiritual, even though for now we groan in our tents.
God bless you, your tent, as well as your joyful expectation of what comes next!
Vern