A blanket fort still stands in my bonus room turned playroom. I am amazed it has lasted this long with four very active under fives coming and going but the weather has been quite nice lately so we have spent much of our time together outdoors. It only took a few throw pillows, a quilt, a stool and a chair to recreate one of my own childhood memories for my grands. So far it is less about actually playing than about hearing stories of little Lolly. I can reel them in most any time with questions like, “Do you want to know what we did when I was a little girl?”
My children grew up knowing facts about me and my husband, our parents and grandparents like where we lived before their childhood home, how we celebrated birthdays or Christmas or where we went during summer vacations because we talked about it with them. We laughed at dated photos in boxes or albums in the same way my grandchildren want to flip through my Google Photos on my phone to see pictures of themselves and their parents as babies. We give them a sense of connection, like belonging to another time and place by sharing our experiences with them, but we don’t stop there. We give them experiences of their own.
Our family traditions shifted over time to accommodate distance from extended family and our own maturing children. We continued to flex as our children married, moved and their families have expanded. Making the most of our time together for me means being available for whatever whenever and sharing God’s love at every opportunity. Today it looked like building a blanket fort and sharing another story.
The exiles of God’s chosen nation, Israel, returned from Babylon, and under Nehemiah, finished building the wall around Jerusalem. Their enemies could not believe they finished it so quickly, in only fifty-two days. They knew God was helping them so they decided to leave them alone. God always honors obedience.
“On the second day of the (seventh) month the family leaders met with Ezra the scribe, together with all the people, the priests, and the Levites, to consider the words of the law.
They discovered written in the law that the Lord had commanded through Moses that the Israelites should live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month, and that they should make a proclamation and disseminate this message in all their cities and in Jerusalem:
“Go to the hill country and bring back olive branches and branches of wild olive trees, myrtle trees, date palms, and other leafy trees to construct temporary shelters, as it is written.”
So all the assembly which had returned from the exile constructed temporary shelters and lived in them.
The Israelites had not done so from the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day.
Everyone experienced very great joy.
Ezra read in the book of the law of God day by day, from the first day to the last.
They observed the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day they held an assembly as was required.”
Nehemiah 8:13-15, 17-18 NET
https://bible.com/bible/107/neh.8.18.NET
Why did God ask His people to live in temporary shelters for a whole week every year when they had homes made of wood and stone in a city surrounded by a giant stone wall? He wanted them to remember something important about Him and something else very humbling about themselves. He was also providing opportunities for them to disciple their children.
““Listen, O Israel!
The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.
Repeat them again and again to your children.
Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.
Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/deu.6.4-9.NLT
“Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you don’t forget the things your eyes have seen and so that they don’t slip from your mind as long as you live.
Teach them to your children and your grandchildren. ”
Deuteronomy 4:9 CSB
https://bible.com/bible/1713/deu.4.9.CSB
Their ancestors had been slaves in Egypt. God rescued them and provided a good land for them, but because of their disobedience, they lived in tents, temporary shelters, in the wilderness for forty years and only their children inherited the land of promise. God protected and provided for His people in spite of their ungratefulness and disobedience. This land would be their possession, but God Himself was their ultimate inheritance. (Genesis 15:1)
“For seven days you must live outside in little shelters.
All native-born Israelites must live in shelters.
This will remind each new generation of Israelites that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I rescued them from the land of Egypt.
I am the Lord your God.””
Leviticus 23:42-43 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/lev.23.42-43.NLT
““You must observe the Festival of Shelters for seven days at the end of the harvest season, after the grain has been threshed and the grapes have been pressed.
This festival will be a happy time of celebrating with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows from your towns.
For seven days you must celebrate this festival to honor the Lord your God at the place he chooses, for it is he who blesses you with bountiful harvests and gives you success in all your work.
This festival will be a time of great joy for all.”
Deuteronomy 16:13-15 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/deu.16.15.NLT
Ezra and Nehemiah led the people to observe this festival to the Lord as prescribed in God’s law given to Moses. At many times in Israel’s history, this festival had become meaningless tradition. God’s people had celebrated half heartedly then not at all. We are only ever one generation away from being a people who do not know God. Though our homes may be solidly built with wood, brick and stone, we each dwell in a temporary shelter made of flesh and blood, crafted by God for life on earth.
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
I Corinthians 6:19-20 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/1co.6.19-20.NKJV
“For we know that when this tent we live in—our body here on earth—is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home he himself has made, which will last forever.
While we live in this earthly tent, we groan with a feeling of oppression; it is not that we want to get rid of our earthly body, but that we want to have the heavenly one put on over us, so that what is mortal will be transformed by life.
God is the one who has prepared us for this change, and he gave us his Spirit as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.
So we are always full of courage.
We know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord’s home.
For our life is a matter of faith, not of sight.
We are full of courage and would much prefer to leave our home in the body and be at home with the Lord.
More than anything else, however, we want to please him, whether in our home here or there.
For all of us must appear before Christ, to be judged by him.
We will each receive what we deserve, according to everything we have done, good or bad, in our bodily life.”
2 Corinthians 5:1, 4-10 GNT
https://bible.com/bible/68/2co.5.1-10.GNT
““Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is.
You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.”
Interlude
We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.
We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it.
And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?
My only hope is in you.”
Psalms 39:4-7 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.39.4-7.NLT
“Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.”
Psalms 90:12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.90.12.NLT
“So be careful how you live.
Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.
Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.
Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.
Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life.
Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts.
And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 5:15-20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.5.15-20.NLT
“Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives.
Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives.
Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.
And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.”
Colossians 3:16-17 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/col.3.16-17.NLT
My grandchildren are not the only ones God has placed in my life who need to know Jesus. So until He comes again, I will keep telling my story to anyone who will listen. I know of no better way to share the love of God in Jesus.
“We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.
We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy.
For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.
Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas.
You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is.
And this word continues to work in you who believe.”
1 Thessalonians 2:8, 12-13 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1th.2.8-13.NLT
“I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.”
3 John 1:4 NLT
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