Camping

I don't really mind camping.

I'm not a 'hard-core' proper camper: I have an air bed and have just been in search of a socket to plug in my hair straighteners (camping and curly hair is not a good combination). But I do quite enjoy a couple of nights in the outdoors.

I like the fresh air and the fact that you can see the stars and the fact that life slows down a for a little bit.

However, I think that I like these things most because I know that I am only camping for a few days.

If it became a lifestyle, if I knew I had to live in a tent for the test of my life, I think the novelty would soon wear off and I would get tired of it.

I'd find the space confining and restricting; I'd get annoyed that I can't stand up properly; I'd find it irritating that I couldn't always have a hot shower. My air bed would soon deflate and so would my enthusiasm.

The Bible says that it's the same with our earthly bodies: the physical bodies that we have here on earth are like tents: they are temporary and a poor reflection of the heavenly and eternal and glorious body that we will have after death:

"For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh."

[Corinthians 5:1,2,4 NLT]

Our earthly bodies are 'tents' which are fine for our time here and the work that God gives us to do. However, they are flimsy and sometimes uncomfortable, and that reminds us that they are not our permanent homes. We have an eternal and permanent house to look forward to.

I love this translation from the same passage in 2 Corinthians:

"He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less...Cramped conditions here don't get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead."

[2 Corinthians 5:5-6 MSG]

So, in the same way that at the end of the week I'll be glad to get back to my more substantial flat, when I am frustrated with my earthly body, I can take comfort that it is not my permanent residence.