Take a look at your stuff and ask yourself, “Would I like to go tenting for the rest of my life?” Abram did!
Abram exchanged a nice home in Ur for a goat’s hair tent. And, even though he became very rich, he chose tent living for the rest of his life. Hebrews 11:8-10 explains, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents…for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Two things characterized Abram’s life in Canaan: wherever he went, he would pitch a tent and build an altar. By this he testified to the people around him that he was both a stranger and a pilgrim (see Gen 12:7-8). He didn’t belong down here, but he did belong up there! He had left Ur and Haran, but he was looking for a city, too—a very different kind. This one had as its architect and builder the God of heaven. Abram thought Canaan was a nice campsite, but some day he hoped to put away those tent pegs and settle back, no longer a stranger who didn’t belong where he was, or a pilgrim who hadn’t yet reached his destination. Hebrews 11:13-14 goes on to explain the patriarchs’ strategy: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they SEEK a country” (KJV). Their purpose in tenting was to make people first curious, and eventually seek for Heaven, too! Now, I wonder, do people ask me about my hope? Or is it the same as theirs—to feel at home down here? Let’s learn from Abram how to make people homesick for heaven.