Year after year as I sit in our succah, I am filled with the sense of His pleasure that we are on His calendar and that we are honoring His desire to keep this appointment with us. When you are sitting inside, surrounded by the walls made of sheets, seeing the sky peeking through the branches of the roof, you feel the sense of being safe and hidden, much like when you are a child hiding safe within your makeshift fort of blankets. I asked an eight year old girl last year what she felt sitting inside our succah and she said,” I feel safe.” I told her that was exactly what the LORD wanted her to feel because it represents His care and absolute sovereignty over our lives. The scripture verses that we pin up on the “walls” are all about Him being our refuge, our Rock, our shelter our strong tower that we run into and are safe, our hiding place that shield us from trouble. He wants us to dwell in a succah once a year as a reminder of the reality that even though the lives that we build for ourselves and all of the things that we are able to acquire, it is Him that is our provider. It is Him that gives us the power to gain wealth. It is Him that gives it, and if He chooses, He can take it away. Just like the desert wandering Jews of long ago, we are dependent on Him for everything…even our next breath.  It is as though God asks me each year, ” if you lose all your earthly belongings that I gave you, AM I ENOUGH?” And, of course in that moment of feeling the joy of His presence, I say yes.