He Made His Dwelling
John 1:14 · Hebrews 11:16 (NIV)
In the early hours of Monday, October 12, fire broke out in the oldest covered food market in Paris.
The Marché des Enfants Rouges had served the city for about four hundred years. Its name means "Market of the Red Children." Orphans cared for at a nearby hospital wore red clothes until 1772, and the market took its name from them. France named it a historic monument in 1982. This year, Food & Wine magazine ranked it fifth in the world for street food.
Euronews, a European news network, quoted Lieutenant Colonel Pierre de Bouvier: "The market was completely destroyed." A later report noted that one firefighter suffered a minor medical episode, with no other casualties reported. The cause remained unknown. Ariel Weil, the mayor of the central Paris district, said, "The worst has been avoided." He said no nearby buildings were affected. The city was seeking temporary premises for the market's businesses.
People grieve when a place like that burns. GOD is near to those who grieve.
David, the shepherd who became king of Israel, wrote many of the psalms. In Psalm 61 his prayer gives voice to distance and a faint heart. "From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings" (Psalm 61:2-4).
David asks GOD to lead him to the rock. A few lines later he says, "you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name" (Psalm 61:5). A heritage passes from one generation to the next. David names it as something GOD has given him.
David also longs for GOD's tent. In his day, the ark of the Lord rested "inside the tent that David had pitched for it" in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:17). David offered sacrifices there. The image of the tent holds together worship, shelter, and nearness to GOD.
Centuries later, the Gospel of John, one of the four accounts of the life of JESUS, says, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).
Mission Eurasia, a ministry that equips local Christian leaders, uses the yurt in its devotional teaching as an image of life with GOD. A yurt is a traditional portable dwelling in Central Asia. It can be taken down, carried, and raised again wherever it is needed.
That image helps us hear John's words. The Greek verb behind “made his dwelling” carries the sense of dwelling in a tent. GOD came near in the flesh.
David longed for GOD's tent. In JESUS, GOD pitched HIS tent among people.
The Letter to the Hebrews, written to early followers of JESUS, looks back at Abraham, Sarah, and others who trusted GOD long before. Abraham "lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob" (Hebrews 11:9). "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth" (Hebrews 11:13).
Hebrews says they "were longing for a better country," and GOD answered that longing. "Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them" (Hebrews 11:16).
The city is GOD's work from start to finish. HE prepared it for people who trusted HIS promise while living as strangers.
A bishop named Irenaeus led the church in Lyon, in what is now France, around AD 180. In his work Against Heresies, he wrote about the story JESUS told of a man attacked by robbers and left half dead by the road (Luke 10:30). In his interpretation of the parable, Irenaeus saw the Lord in the one who stopped to help. He wrote of "the Lord commending to the Holy Spirit His own man, who had fallen among thieves, whom He Himself compassionated, and bound up his wounds" (Against Heresies III.17.3). In the same passage, Irenaeus wrote that "the dew, which is the Spirit of God, who descended upon the Lord, should be diffused throughout all the earth." David called out from the ends of the earth. The Spirit of GOD reaches that far.
That Lord is near to the people of that market this week, and to anyone who has watched something they loved burn.
It does leave me thinking about the places I once counted on that are no longer standing.
I am not here to prove myself. I am here to make HIM visible.
🙏 To the one who watched something you loved burn this week, GOD sees your grief.
🙏 To the one calling out from far away, HE hears you from the ends of the earth.
🙏 To the one who feels like a stranger where you live, GOD is not ashamed of you.
🙏 To the one carrying wounds no one else can see, JESUS binds them up.
Grace and Peace.