This week, inspired by our study of Isaiah 54, our verse for 2015 (Isaiah 54:2) our Devotionals this week are on the theme of tents.
I am someone who enjoys camping. As children we first borrowed a large blue canvas frame tent and later graduated to a trailer tent, and finally a caravan. We would spend a couple of weeks by the sea in this country, or in France as we got older and braver. I loved curling up in my sleeping bag under canvas and waking with the dawn. I loved playing cards beneath the glow of the gaslight. I didn’t mind carrying the dishes down to the large communal sinks. Camping was exciting! There was something special about choosing a pitch and making a temporary home in a small space. But it was just a holiday experience - I don’t know how I would cope with an itinerant way of life on a permanent basis. But in Old Testament times a nomadic lifestyle following flocks and herds in search of pasture was a way of life. This was Abraham and Sarah’s lifestyle.
I love the story of the three visitors told in Genesis 18:
The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. He said, ‘If I have found favour in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way – now that you have come to your servant.’‘ Very well,’ they answered, ‘do as you say.’ So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. ‘Quick,’ he said, ‘get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.’ Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree. ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ they asked him. ‘There, in the tent,’ he said. Then one of them said, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.’ Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, ‘After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?’ Then the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, “Will I really have a child, now that I am old?” Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.’ Genesis 18: 1-14 [NIV]
Living as they did moving around the country year after year, decade after decade, I expect they wondered if they would ever enjoy anything lasting or permanent, whether they would leave any legacy. Sarah laughed at the prospect of change but when the baby was born she named him Isaac, which means laughter, perhaps to remind herself not to disbelieve God.
My son, too, is named Isaac – perhaps I should let myself be reminded more often that God has good things in store.
God has good plans for our lives. Pray that we may discover them and enjoy them.
Mairi Mowbray
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