Visions in Troubling Times

When Ezekiel arrived in the land of exiles and saw the predicament of his own people, the Scripture says that he "sat there among them, stunned, for seven days."  (Ezekiel 3:15)  What he saw, heard, and felt in that strange land was something for which he was totally unprepared.  His whole life with all of its plans was turned totally upside down.   The trouble which surrounded him and overwhelmed him took him far away from his routine and everything familiar in his life.  For seven days he sat like a man tied to the misery around him.

 

After seven days the stillness and the silence brought him to a place of seeing things he had not seen and caused him to discover holy presence in a way never imagined.  Out of that stillness came an awareness of the Lord speaking and visions that changed forever the way he would live his life.  While the trouble of these days is so different than that experienced by the prophet, it has pushed us into a stillness which seems like a strange land for many of us.  It has also changed the way we do things.  Instead of dumping children out at the rec department for organized play, parents are now interacting with children at home during the day and in the evening.  Board games are finding new life and couples are walking together instead of running in different directions. 

Perhaps, in this stillness which is enveloping us we will have enough silent space to once again touch the inside part of us, to reconnect with the essence of our self, the abiding presence of Christ within, and our families.  We may even find ourselves seeing a vision of how our life has run amuck by all the things we thought had to be done in order to live well and how life might indeed be lived differently and better in days to come.  Listening carefully may even enable us to hear that voice which Ezekiel heard which is spoken of as "the Word of the Lord."  (Ezekiel 1:3)