It is easy for us as individuals to get wrapped up in our own lives. I am especially susceptible to this. So for me there is a tremendous value and packing up the "necessities," (this itself is a useful exercise) jumping in the car, and heading for the Feast. I need the reminder that all the things I think are so important, aren't. If we are a Christian then this world, this society, what I call in this blog Babylon, is not your home. Hebrews 11 tell us this about Abraham:
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
They never had a permanent home, they lived in tents. This is very similar to what a pilgrimage festival accomplishes. It reminds us that this world is not our home. That we have something to look forward to. Even though, to a degree, we live in the world Abraham looked for, to a degree we all look forward to the future. Hebrews 11 concludes with this:
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Yes God has a plan for us, we have a glorious future, a new body that will allow perfection, what God always had in mind for us when we were created. Observing a pilgrimage festival reminds us of this. This world is not all there is, there is more.