Living in tents like strangers in a new land.
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. (Heb. 11:8-9 NIV)
June, 2013.
I was filling out a customs form during our flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo: name, passport number, nationality, date of birth… I breezed through these almost mindlessly, as I had filled out this information dozens of times before.
Then I was asked about our residence.
I had to stop and think for a moment. We no longer had an official residence in the U.S., and we still didn’t know our “final” address in Japan.
I didn’t know where our home was.
We arrived at Narita airport and were greeted by three missionaries from our denomination. They took us to Higashikurume, a suburb on the outskirts of west Tokyo, and dropped us off at a home owned by a church, where we’d stay for a few nights while we waited for an apartment that we could stay at while we tried to figure out where we’d live in northeastern Japan. This apartment would only be available to us for one month, so if we didn’t find more “permanent” housing by then, we’d have to make other temporary arrangements.
Between the condo we sold in California and the apartment we’d settle in for most of our two-year assignment, we would end up moving a total of six times in four months.
On our second day in Tokyo, our good friends from California invited us to their home for dinner and asked if we wanted any coffee from a major chain in the U.S.A. I declined because I knew that this brand was hard to come by in Japan, and I thought I could always get some when we return to the States.
Then it hit me that we weren’t going back anytime soon. We were now residents of Japan.
We attended church on our first Sunday in Japan and the sermon was about displacement, citing Hebrews 11, about Abraham going to a place he didn’t know and dwelling in tents like strangers in a foreign land. The pastor pointed out that most, if not all, of the expats in the room had lived through this personally, reminding me that Soo and I weren’t the only ones who were going through this process of uprooting and making ourselves mobile in response to God’s calling.
(It kinda stings when I realize that I’m not that special.)
Jesus told his disciples to take nothing with them for the journey and rely on the hospitality of others (Mk. 6:8-11; Lk. 9:3-5), and when a potential disciple asked to follow Jesus, he was told that “foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Lk. 9:58). It’s one thing to read these things, and another to be confronted with the reality of what it all means.
I couldn’t complain, though– God had been gracious to us throughout this process, providing us with more than we needed or expected.
In biblical times, tents weren’t like these compact pop-up tents that you’d throw in the back of the minivan for an overnighter at the beach. They were huge tents that could house an entire family and required multiple pack animals and servants to help transport, set-up, and tear down. Tents were expensive, so when the passage in Hebrews 11 talks about living in tents, it does refer to housing that is temporary, but temporary doesn’t necessarily mean shabby.
Our first three days were spent at a church guest house near a river, where the boys had a great time searching out wildlife (yes, there were ducks) and wading in the fresh, clean spring water. We then moved into an apartment that was similar in size, feel, and layout to the condo we sold in Orange County. It was surprisingly spacious for Tokyo, and not only was it fully furnished and air-conditioned, the previous occupants left behind a lot of American goods that we could use while we were there. We couldn’t have asked for an easier place to land and begin our transition into life in Japan.
God does provide, though it might not always look the way we expect or would like it to.
It’s usually better than that.
Shortly after our arrival in Japan, my supervisor and I planned to drive up to Iwate to look into housing possibilities in Ofunato. Would we find housing after being told for years that there weren’t any rentals available? Would we find our “final” address in Japan?
Wherever we might end up, anywhere on this earth, it would only be temporary, and our final home will be somewhere else, in a much more desirable neighborhood.
If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Heb. 11: 15-16 NIV)
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