“The tent, which was called the meeting tent, Moses used to pitch at some distance away, outside the camp.”  (EX 33:7-11).

Two particular camping events stand out in my memory right now; probably because of the inherent humor I find in them:

The first one involved a camping trip to Ft. Pickens outside of Pensacola many years ago.  It was summertime and I remember that we didn’t own a tent, so we borrowed one.  Upon setting up the “tent,” we noticed that there was no floor and that the sides of the tent were transparent screens.  We had inadvertently brought with us essentially a mosquito net to camp within.  Never mind the privacy issue, the real problem was the easy entrance way, provided by the lack of a floor, for any curious critters.  I remember distinctly my brother waking us up in the middle of the night to inform us that there was a raccoon in the “tent, “ and that the critter was desperately trying to open a plastic bottle of soda.   Later in the sleepless night, I recall my brother addressing a ranger (passing the see-through tent) by saying with true concern, “did you know there are animals in this campground?” to which the ranger replied, “This is the wilderness son!”

The second camping escapade was in the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, also several years ago.  It was our last stop on a three-week adventure out West.  While on a sunset nature walk, the ranger calmly said, “I hope that you secured your tent well in the sands, because the winds really pick up at night-fall.  In fact the sand dunes move through the night.”  Fortunately, we had tied our tent to a nearby yucca tree; however, the wind through the night was so ferocious that the tent was battered to pieces and, by morning, we had endured a sleepless and hysterical night in a collapsed tent that had served its purpose well, but was now ready to be retired forever!

In the Exodus reading today (EX 33:7-11), we hear a lot about tents.  In particular the special meeting tent that Moses would enter in order to consult with the Lord.  As the Scriptures says, as Moses went into the tent, a column of cloud would come over the meeting tent, and all would rise and worship at the entrance of their own tents.  The meeting tent seemed to have a special character of allowing for an encounter with God – the very presence of God could be found in this “meeting tent.”

This “meeting tent” was the way in which God met with the Hebrew people “face-to-face” through the person of Moses.  Moses pleaded with God to find favor with him and the people and asked the Lord to “come along in our company.”  I’m not sure that we have to ask this question, so much as we need to hear the answer that precedes our question.  The “I am here” for you that is always true everywhere – God cannot be other than God!  But our awareness of this open invitation is really the possibility to respond to God’s invitation, “Let’s go camping together!”

I think, as the Scripture says, we all have “tents.”  Places (natural, physical, mental, or otherwise) where we “meet” God.  But tents are temporary, and as the somewhat comical stories above illustrate, they are also flimsy, vulnerable and sometimes transparent!  I want to say thank God for that!  God’s love covenant with us cannot be confined by flimsy boundaries and makeshift structures that can sometimes be exclusive and even ignorant.  I believe we are called to speak face-to-face with God, as the Scripture says, “as one ….to another.”  Until we begin to realize that we encounter God when we engage with one another in love and acceptance, I’m not sure that we can appreciate the vastness of God’s environment and how accessible it is all the time and everywhere.  It occurs to me that to enter into God’s presence in this life, is like a camping trip.  “Tents” are ok, so long as they allow others in because there can be no one exclusive place for God’s great “wilderness” of love.

Peace,

Thomas