Sacred Spaces

“So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba.” – Genesis 46:1

“You and I haven’t much time with our many responsibilities, but creating a small ‘sacred space’ somewhere in our home and giving ourselves ten minutes in the morning to be with the One who loves us so as to put the coming day into loving hands, changes the way we will live it. And returning to this sacred space for ten minutes at night to recall the day’s encounters, to give thanks, to ask pardon, and to put the night into the hands of Love, changes the way we sleep. This daily relationship with the loving Source of our true identity moves us towards peacefulness and joy in our lives.” – Henri Nouwen, A Spirituality of Caregiving

Did the last word in that phrase from Genesis surprise you? Israel had just heard that a beloved child he thought dead was alive, but he doesn’t go straight to Egypt. After getting over the shock, he began to feel afraid. Perhaps he remembered a foretold four hundred years of affliction (Genesis 15:3). This wasn’t how it was supposed to go, moving out of the promised land so near the end of his life. 

And so he stops along the way at Beersheba. This was the same place his grandfather Abraham swore an oath and planted a tree and called on God (Gen 21:33), the same place his father Isaac met with God in the night when he was afraid (Gen 26:25). Israel stops, makes sacrifices, and God speaks to him. God calls him by name, and God tells him His names: “I am El, the Elohim of your father” (verse 3). El is a general word for God that literally means “mighty one,” from a root word ayil that means mighty tree. Elohim is the plural version, the word that describes God as creator. I am the God of your father. A God mighty like these trees your grandfather planted that are all around you. Do not be afraid.

Makes me think about sacred spaces, places where we sense God’s presence, stretching generations past, or perhaps times past in our own lives. We are people of place, and in the wanderings and fillings-up of our lives, sometimes it helps to have a space set aside for God. This could be a place we go to for regular retreats, which I am increasingly convinced is a healthy habit of the spiritual life (I highly recommend Highway’s prayer retreats as a place to start). This could be a space in our homes: a closet, a corner of a room where we light a candle, in Susanna Wesley’s case, an apron thrown over her head. It could be a space in our offices, as simple as turning our chairs to face a wall. It could be a space in our minds, when we meditate on the Bible or center our thoughts. It can be writing, which opens up new spaces as we explore what lives inside us. 

A good definition I’ve heard of spiritual disciplines recently is one by Henri Nouwen: “In the spiritual life, the word ‘discipline’ means ‘the effort to create some space in which God can act.’ Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that somewhere you’re not occupied, and certainly not preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn’t planned or counted on.” Israel could have journeyed on in fear. He could have been preoccupied with the needs of the group of seventy traveling with him. But he stops at Beersheba. Perhaps he sees the tree, the well, and remembers. What are your sacred spaces? What markers of them will you leave for yourself, and for those who come after you?