camping with God

It's Advent. So it seemed a reasonable time to do a quiet tip-toe, tip-toe back into blogland. Shhh!

A long, long time ago, in the mountains of Israel, God went camping. The astonishing thing is not that God went camping -- perfectly pleasant activity that it is -- its who he went camping with. He went camping with a bunch of needy, whiny idiots.

Who you camp with makes all the difference. This summer we got to camp with some friends. They were camping a couple hours away in the Wallowa Mountains and invited us to join them, all we needed to bring was our tent and a little food -- they would bring the rest of the camping gear. Let me tell you: that is the way to camp. Find some people you like, find a beautiful location with plenty to do, AND have your friends do all the work! We hardly had to pack anything and arrived at this well-appointed campsite: nicely furnished fire pit, kitchen shelter with stand-alone campstoves, coolers and boxes full of food, dishwashing station...and we didn't have to pack a single match. That alone would've made for a nice weekend, but the company we enjoyed made it far surpass simply being 'nice'.

God, on the other hand, didn't have it so great. These people God decided to camp with were needy. So needy, they had to first be rescued from slavery before they could even go camping together. Neither were they well-equipped for their journey. They packed what they could, but a lifetime of brick-making had ill-prepared them for being out on their own in the wilderness. Its fair to say that God did all the packing -- or providing for -- on the trip.

These people were not the most pleasant to camp with either. Just a couple days into their "slaves on religious vacation in the wilderness" thing -- before they had even been fully delivered out of slavery -- they begin whining and supposing that they were, in fact, better off without their leader (and God). So God really had ample warning. But he went ahead and destroyed the Egyptian army anyway, releasing these slaves into freedom. Which was followed by worship, which was followed by more whining.

And yet God chose to camp with them.

He laid out plans for his tent, which was called a tabernacle, that served as a picture of how it would be possible to have a Holy God living among a wretched people. The tabernacle was a visual, tangible way for the Israelites to know God was among them, that He desired to be close to them. The tabernacle announced undeniably, "God is with us."

Many years later God laid out plans to again live among his people. This time he didn't camp in a tent, he camped in a body, wrapping a part of Himself in human flesh. And so "God with us," Emmanuel, came down to accomplish what that first tabernacle could only do in part.

The people He chose to dwell among were still as ugly and useless as they were first time He came down. As still as much in need of all that "God with Us" has to offer. As still as independent and whiny as they were from the beginning.

And yet God chose to dwell among us.

The tabernacle is not the typical emblem of Christmas. But I wonder if there's something in that first "God among us" situation that gives insight into the second. And so, this season, I'm going to camping with God.