Living in sukkoth to recall the sweetness of honey:
Sukkoth, in judaism, is making yourself vulnerable intentionally to remind yourself of the reliance you have on God. And the fragility of life. We put up tents behind our homes and live in them for a bit to recall, our own and other’s vulnerability in life!
I feel we are doing that this season of our lives. We are not refugees-fleeing wars and unsafe spaces- we are immigrants. We chose to move in order to build a bigger canopy. In the meantime, we live in a creative tent, meant to teach us a pure reliance and expectant dependency, on what and who gave us life in the first place.
In other words, this season of my wife and I’s life is about learning to pray, while exposed to the elements! To lean in, and begin again. To recognize that everything in life is a gift. And as we expand our tent pegs to allow more campers and spiritual nomads in, that we are like vulnerable kids again.
Or, as Psalm 91 puts it, to shelter more fully in the shadow of the Almighty! And not rely on the world to protect and flourish us, but to return to relying only on God to be our home.
This is a good place to be in life!
The feast of tabernacles, we are in. In hope vulnerability and expectation, we are. We are not victims. We are blessed to choose to put ourselves once again beneath the stars and weather of our times in Hope that we will all come home again. We intentionally join the vulnerable displaced ones now.
Yet, there are strange griefs along the way, of being displaced intentionally. By choice, we move to a new in between space, in order to expand home for us and others we pray! You miss your home, when you live in a tent. Not just the comforts of home, but the feeling of being able to bless others from it (which is the point of homes). Yet…..
We are in Sukkoth in our lives, and enjoying the cold breezes which refine us, as we go! We are in sukkoth by choice. We threw ourselves into the wilderness, to recall the honey of the land!
But, we got to choose it, in hope that we will return home, and that home will expand to cover many! Thankful, for the gift of choosing exile today.
We are in sukkoth to recall the sweetness of the taste of the honey of home.