About Ezekiel

I’ve progressed into Ezekiel in my Bible-reading. These prophetic books frustrate any attempt by my analytical or “literary” mind to file them neatly away, but there are passages of great beauty and power. This morning I reached chapter 10, and found it very moving. It culminates with Ezekiel seeing the same complex and awesome vision of God as he did beside the Kebar River in chapter 1. But this time, God is departing from the temple; Ezekiel watches as the glory of God, made tangible and visible, collects, rises, and departs.

I’m reminded of a poem I wrote a few years ago. It’s called, “Everywhere:”

How do I love Thee?
Let me count the ways –

I love You at the gates of Eden
chilled by regret
looking in and longing for a walk with You in the cool of the day –

I love You with Jacob
wrestling with Your angel
knowing how silly I look and am, yet
trapped into this impossible struggle
by my yearning to hear from You
not Your henchmen –

I love You beneath the juniper with Elijah,
spent to the dregs with the disappointing effort of obedience
sleeping deeply as death
trusting You for care while my eyes and mouth are closed –

I love You with Mary
studying Your sleeping baby face for signs of God
strangely snatched out of my own life
strangely entangled in Your purposes
strangely compelled to protect the trusting weakness
of omnipotence in the flesh –

Now I want to love You beside the river with Ezekiel
numb with wonder
face scrubbed in dirt
Your holiness a smoking brand pressed against my shaking heart
holding me in perfect stillness
making even words of doom and sorrow spoken to people who will ignore me
irresistible –

I am looking for You everywhere.