Swimming Home

Last week I wrote about Ezekiel’s vision of a New World Comin’. Today my sister, Kathy Legg who lives in Lethbridge, Alberta, writes about her thoughts of that extraordinary vision in Ezekiel 47.

Picture this: You’re in a foreign land, a lush and lovely place, prosperous, sophisticated. But it’s not your true home, and to the locals you’re an anomaly, subject to ridicule. You believe in an unseen God. You long to worship openly without the risk you’ll antagonize someone. You try to fit in but it leaves you feeling soul-weary and fragmented. You want to go home. But you can’t -- you’re captive here. Will you ever see home again?

Suddenly a Voice“What do you see?” Strange. Are you dreaming? But you look up from your worries, and, indeed you DO see: A temple gleaming in the sun; within it a sanctuary and an altar. And -- how is this possible? -- from under the altar, running water. Not just a spill or some seepage, but a great wet gush, cutting a course across the landscape. A river.

The Voice invites you to step into it, and you do. It’s cool and flowing, a real river, up to your ankles. You wade downstream, up to your knees, up to your waist. You go deeper, take the plunge, swim in it. It’s sweet and fresh.

You see fishermen along its banks, and fruit-laden trees with healing leaves. You swim ashore, tingling with aliveness from your spontaneous immersion. You feel whole again. Your soul feels like the river: clean, sweet, deep, wide and more buoyant than you’ve ever known. It’s a wonder -- this jubilation of your spirit, celebrating being Home. And yet, here you are -- still living in the foreign country.

We know this story because we live it! This is our Father’s world full of beauty and abundant gifts, but it’s not our heart’s true home. Wayfarers, sojourners -- that’s us. We make uneasy peace with a culture that’s increasingly inhospitable to our Christian faith, but it wearies us.

But we know, too, the gift of that river -- how the Voice blesses an ordinary day with its invitation to turn aside for a moment, step into it, be refreshed. A prayer, perhaps. Or a psalm, a moment of stillness and we’re up to our ankles. The deeper we go the more it encompasses us, holds us, cleanses, renews us; we revel in its boundless life-giving, its perpetual nourishment, its healing gifts.

The deeper we go the more we realize that all this goodness does indeed flow from the altar where the Great Sacrifice made the Great Invitation possible for us to hear: Come unto me... and I will give you rest ... and you will find life ...and you will never thirst again.

We swim in the gratuitous generosity of the grace of God’s Spirit ushering us into surrender to the deepest waters of joy and healing. “In Him we live and move and have our being”. In Him we are home.

Lord Jesus, you too were grounded in this world, but you knew how to retreat from it and return refreshed, ready to serve, eager to heal. Please help us be your disciples in this. Lead us home. Amen.

Photo sources:
1) Scenic view ... 2) River - Unknown ... 3) Boys Swimming ... 4) Algonquin Park - David Knight

Special appreciation to my sister Kathy Legg for today's reflection on the wonder of water!