Another world

I started reading Ezekiel today. My Bible plan lately has been that of letting the Spirit lead...or the wind...aka read whatever I open to. Not a very effacacious plan for the long-run, but a good one to pass time while I wait for God to give some direction. Today I opened the Book and the title at the top of the page "Ezekiel" caught my eye. I just knew that's the book I should read next! I hadn't been very captivated in my reading lately, but I remember that the last time I read this book I was really interested and could relate a lot to it (maybe Ezekiel was an INTP??), so I'm trusting that I'll feel excited to read it again.

What an interesting book! I love the imagery and Ezekiel's lack of ability to describe his visions. I know exactly the feeling, because I have so many dreams that are completely impossible to describe to someone. I am sure that even though we are reading words that we can understand, we have no idea what Ezekiel actually saw and felt in his visions.

The exciting insight I had tonight happened while reading a footnote about cherubim. Ezekiel describes the angel's wings as touching the other angel's wings. The footnote pointed out that this is how God commanded the cherubim should be crafted on the ark. I LOVE thinking about what God wants - and in this case, He wanted the statue angels to look like they do in real life! I am pretty sure that the statue angels way back in the day didn't turn out exactly like the real creatures. It wasn't until however many centuries later when Ezekiel wrote that someone first got a vision of the real creatures (don't take that as fact...maybe there was someone else first). And it won't be until we get to Heaven that the rest of us will finally see and understand.

But the cool thing to me is that God wants things on earth to be like they are in the other realm - the true realm. Earth is simply a reflection of God's first home in Heaven. We as humans are so dull as to think we should be able to do life however we see fit. Why don't we realize that we are just symbols of a bigger, better, and TRUE world?? God gave us the Law and all those instructions about building the temple to show us what it's supposed to look like. Why do we feel so burdened by His insights into what is really true? We should be thankful that we can get a picture of what Heaven is really like.

Back to my main point - God wants earth to be a picture of Heaven, our true home! This is such great news to me and I can understand this so much better after living in a foreign country this year. It's so natural for us to bring back bits (or lots) of pieces of home to help us adjust to our new foreign, temporary home. (Hence me bringing a whole suitcase full of food back to the Us after Christmas break!) That's natural because that's how our whole lives should be - trying as hard as we can to make this temporary home look like our true home, where we will finally be satisfied, comfortable, and at rest & peace. God wants unbelievers (and believers too) to see what Heaven will be like by giving us symbols of Heaven (take marriage for example) - SO THAT we will be focused on Heaven - and truly fulfill our purpose here on earth (which is to prepare for Heaven, not just get cozy in our earthly lives).

What can you do today to make this "house" more like home?

As a relevant, yet creative distraction - I opened my first bag of plantain chips in the past few months, and the first bite distinctly reminded me of when I was reading Out of the Silent Planet. How fun to have chips that take me to another world (though not the true world...)!