The Old Tent

 

Back in the late ‘60’s I was a member of the Royal Ambassadors - the Southern Baptist answer to the Boy Scouts.  We met on Sunday afternoons before the Sunday night church service.  We had occasional trips, one of which was a camping trip in the woods behind Stanley Legear’s house in Joppa.  Many of the boys had tents, but a few of us did not.  Brother Stanley had an old army surplus tent that we used.  It had side curtains, but no bottom, so we had to dig a trench around the perimeter to channel rain away from the tent.  Of course, it didn’t rain, we just had to be prepared in case it rained.  I think it was just something to do to keep us occupied.  That old tent had a musty smell that I still remember sixty-five years later.  But in the morning, just as the men were cooking breakfast, we took the old tent down.  The canvas was rolled up, pegs and poles tied up with ropes, and everything was put into the back of a pick-up truck and carried away.  And someday, this old body will be tucked away, just like that old Korean war surplus tent, but the real Gerald Whitely will live on forever. II Corinthians 5:1, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle (σκῆνος, tent) were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”  And when I pass on into eternity, I will be more alive than I have ever been!  II Corinthians 5:4, “… that mortality might be swallowed up of life.”  Hey, are you ready for that great day when real living begins?  Message me if you aren’t sure.  I can point out a few of the dear Lord’s promises that will thrill and comfort you.  Oh, yes, they will!