borrowed beds (or "how having stuff, even a mansion in glory, is not the point")

I remember, as a child, feeling really bad for Jesus whenever I heard the passage where Jesus told a certain scribe, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:2) I would lie in my own comfortable bed and wonder how Jesus could have just gone on, day after day, not even having a place to sleep.

When I got a little older, I somehow figured out that Jesus actually did have a place to sleep, but it wasn't really His own place. Unlike other young men around Him, Jesus never settled down, got married, or accumulated stuff.

Jesus' reason for being on earth was entirely about reconciling humankind to the Father. And the process of doing that involved Jesus living a very transient and physically poor existence. Lately the poem has been running through my mind, which [although I wouldn't call it extremely poetic or beautiful] certainly captures the essence of Jesus' relationship to the "stuff" He needed and used in His earthly life. Basically, in spite of being the Creator and rightful owner of everything, while He was on earth Jesus owned nothing and borrowed everything:

They borrowed a bed to lay His head
When Christ the Lord came down;
They borrowed the ass in the mountain pass
For Him to ride to town...

He borrowed the bread when the crowd He fed
On the grassy mountain side;
He borrowed the dish of broken fish
With which He satisfied...

He borrowed the ship in which to sit
To teach the multitude;
He borrowed the nest in which to rest,
He had never a home so rude...

He borrowed a room on the way to the Tomb
The Passover lamb to eat;
They borrowed the cave; for Him a grave;
They borrowed the winding sheet...

Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. He came that we might have life, and have it abundantly. He came to fully reveal God to humankind, and to reconcile to God everyone who would believe.

Owning stuff just wasn't a necessary element of fulfilling the most important mission that a human was ever born to accomplish. When Jesus needed something, there it was for Him. He lived the most meaningful life possible, and none of that meaning was tied to the possessions He had.

And it's the same today, with us (by "us" I mean you and me, all of us). When God gives us a mission, He gives us power to go and do it. If we need supplies along the way, He'll provide them. There will be beds to borrow. There will be homes to welcome us along the way. There will be a worldwide body to support and join us. We are not alone, and we are not dependent upon our own resources. It's okay if we don't have anything or don't have too much of our own: that's really not necessary (no matter how safe it makes us feel to surround ourselves with stuff we can call "ours.")

Some of the borrowed beds along our recent way were the serendipitous couches of terminal B in the Brussels airport. Now we are in Yaoundé  in new rented beds. They're nice, but who knows how long we'll sleep in them before it's time to move on to different beds.

Tonight we enjoyed an incredible supper of rice, boiled plantain, delicious beef and tomato sauce, and Coca-cola, served in the home of a Cameroonian family we had gotten to know a bit during the two different Januarys ('11 and '13) that we spent in Yaounde before. It was one of those homes that welcomes strangers who have come from afar. We felt so welcomed, and we look forward to more fellowship with these and many other friends here. It's incredible how here and everywhere else we have been, so many people share freely with us the things that they have been given.

Ultimately, none of us own anything here. What things will we leave behind for others to organize, to enjoy, to donate? None of the stuff will ultimately go with us. In itself, the stuff has no real value. It's not worth getting very wrapped up in.

It's not that I am really okay with this all the time. Moving from place to place, trying to lug stuff around the world with us, takes a big toll on me. I find myself wearied, quick to get annoyed with my family, and wishing that we could settle down somewhere (please?!) or have some definition to our future (just a little?!) or not have to keep buying and then getting rid of stuff as we must downsize, pack and move yet again.

But I hope I can remember that the stuff isn't what it's about. Neither is it about having a house where we can just stay put and settled down for some number of years. In the age to come, there will be a dwelling place for us, and most importantly, we'll be living there with our Father. Together, forever.

[Now, just in case you have been getting excited about the big house you're going to have in the new earth...the Bible doesn't actually say that there will be a mansion for each one of us. The point is actually that we'll be dwelling with God, and not necessarily in a big ritzy palace. I'd love to talk with you more about that, but I think it's the stuff of a whole 'nother post].