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One of my favorite things to do as a child was to pull a few chairs together, lay some blankets across them, and form a makeshift tent, a cushy fort of blankets. As a grandfather now, I find this indoor camping inclination alive and well in my grandchildren. Why do we enjoy building tents and crawling inside, and why is it so much better when another joins us? Intimacy. There is a heightened sense of “togetherness” as you crawl into that cozy chamber, a sense of being “in here” as opposed to being “out there.” It’s like the coziness of a close friend.
There’s a universal desire for friendship, to be united to another. To not just be known, but loved, not just identified, but delighted in as well. We enter the world both physically and spiritually naked. While our bodies are quickly swaddled, our souls will wander, seeking shelter from the harshness of a fallen world. And when we find someone our nakedness doesn’t frighten away, one with whom we can truly be ourselves, we find that we are “clothed” in their company. There’s a covering in this community. Our souls let out an inward sigh as we crawl inside the blanket fort of their presence.
To experience the intimacy of a good friend is to gain an echoing taste of the Trinity’s union. When we find our tune is the harmony to another’s song, and recognize the sameness in our difference, we are bumping into the divine. Made in the image of the One Who is a fellowship, we find our deepest joy in our union with another. And the recognition of this innate oneness with someone else is what allows the depth to grow. If we sense the harmony could falter, we decline the urge to sing. It is only as we know the bond cannot be broken that we give ourselves completely.
Do we not find in our Triune God the perfection of all these desires? The union of Father, Son and Spirit is so deep that their oneness is as true as their division? This, this is what every deep friendship declares! The knowing smile, the inside jokes, the information spoken with our eyes alone. These all harken to the friendship of the Three in One. Every joy on earth is a referent to our God, but here we enter the Holy of holies, the fountain from which every other joy proceeds. For it is out of the fullness of this eternal fellowship that all reality was formed. And the peal of that initial overflow still rings in every fiber of creation. It’s the reason that our joys are common, our senses universal.
Much has been written about Israel’s Holy of holies. From the days of their nomadic tabernacle to the ornate structure of Solomon’s temple, that most inner chamber has been regarded with a sense secret separation. No one but the High Priest could enter, and that but once a year. But looked at from another angle, it was the beginning of God dwelling once again with His people. For just as the tabernacle’s thick layers defined the separation, they also spoke of nearness and intimacy, a place to meet with God on earth. Far from the comfy blanket fort of childhood, this tent could only be entered through blood sacrifice. Yet still it spoke of communion, still it was called the Tent of Meeting.
David longed to dwell there. “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple” (Psa. 27:4) But how could he, how could we? Enter the Son of Man, the Second Person of that perfect fellowship above. Leaving that holy place not made with hands, to walk upon this exiled land, He tabernacled here below, that we might come to know the union to which every earthly friendship pointed.
And He showed us how to dwell there too. “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” (John 15:9-10) With Him, there were no heartless movements, no vacant words. Each action of His life flowed from a reference to the Others. Knowing His Father’s commands declared the shape of His heart, He found a dwelling place on earth in the keeping of His words. His was the faithfulness of fellowship, the maintenance of the union, not the gaining of it.
And so may we abide as well. Made partakers of that same Spirit, we are being built into a dwelling place of God. (Eph. 2:22) Born anew into this fellowship, we nestle in the friendship of the Three as we know and keep His words. May every memory of those blanket forts, and every taste of friendship’s sweetness, be a beacon to that truer joy.
