Shelters Protect Us in Every Variation of Circumstances
It was a wonderful day in late June, high up in the mountains of the Bridger-Teton Wilderness in Wyoming, USA. Our group had spent most of the day slogging through some soggy trails. All the snowmelt, from the changing of seasons, was making its impact on this rugged environment. As we were traveling through a pretty exposed high meadow, a fast-moving thunderstorm rolled in on us. Having no natural shelter available, we threw open our packs and whipped up our tents to hunker down in our safety positions as the storm approached. Fortunately, we had just enough time. We stayed dry and protected from the hail that pounded our tents. Hours later, after making camp, it started to snow. It dumped on us all night. As you can imagine, we would have had a much different experience that day without our shelters. Our shelters were our saving grace.
Photo by Daria Middleton
A good shelter is in the lowest foundational block of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs… meaning that It is a basic need of the human condition. It is no wonder why it is in every varied iteration of the 10 wilderness essentials. Coming in all shapes, sizes, types, and functions, wilderness shelters are necessary for our safety and not to mention an overall good experience in the backcountry.
What Type of Shelter Do I Need?
When packing shelters you need to consider the size and dynamics of your group, the location’s climate and time of year, the campsite surfaces, and even the overall design of your trip. For example, if you plan to do a winter snowshoeing trip with 5 guys and 5 girls, the shelters you choose will likely vary from a rafting trip down the Green River in Utah with all girls. Even on short mountaineering trips, you may want to consider bringing emergency shelters, like bivouacs, depending on the exposure. All scenarios call for an essential need for shelter. All circumstances call for an essential need for the Gospel.
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More Than a Dwelling
Your backcountry shelters are ripe with value for guiding those in your group towards essential biblical truth. In fact, they can be a powerful standing reminder of the entire narrative of the scriptures. God is faithful to us. From the first pages of the Bible, we see God cultivating a habitable space for his image bearers in the garden of Eden. There He dwelt with them, in wonderful unity. That unity was sadly lost, but God remained with his people as His presence dwelt in the tent of meeting and eventually the temple. He faithfully remained there until the glorious moment when God became flesh in Jesus and dwelt among us. He then gave His life for us and sent His Holy Spirit that we might be the temple, the very indwelling of God in us! In that, we have a great hope of the restoration of all things, when heaven and earth are reunited again.
Basic Shelter Points to a Faithful Gospel
As shelter is a basic human need, so is god’s faithfulness to us! Seeing as your shelters are something that you will be setting up every day on your trips, it can be a great opportunity to build in a reflective rhythm of God’s continued faithfulness to us. He is so committed to us that he sent his only son, Jesus, to dwell among us. He humbled Himself to the nature of a servant and gave his life for us. This truth, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is without a doubt the greatest essential and need of our lives. Who knew our tents could help remind us of that?
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him and cried out, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me.) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” – John 1:14-16
Reflection Questions
- What type of trips are you planning and what types of shelters will you need?
- What are the needs of your group and how might your shelter choice be impacted?
- How might you “set up” a talk on the trail that helps point the group to Jesus, using tents?
