Day 28: ☘️ A Deepening Green : Restoration & Life ☘️
☘️ March 17 ☘️
by Michael Lovett
Readings:
Reflection:
Read today's scriptures, then listen to this reflection HERE.
Restoration, water, trees, depth, flourishing, lush trees bearing fruit. Fruit to eat and leaves that heal. The imagery is breathtaking in Exekiel 47 today. The water does not have a natural source. Life does not issue from a mountaintop. No, life comes from the temple in this Ezekiel image. The power is so great that the driest, saltiest place on earth, the Dead Sea, east of Jerusaelm, is utterly changed.
Picture a movie scene that shows time lapse change of a dusty land, and a man walking in the river as it deepens. The word picture is so beautiful and inviting it's remarkable. Today, I invite you to awe at the craftsmanship of what Ezekiel wrote and received from God centuries ago.
Reread and hold that image for a minute or two.
What's surfacing for you as you consider this word picture of heaven, eternal life, change, and complete flourishing? Everything is as it should be, and it is wonderful. Remember the images discussed in yesterday's Day 27 devotional (Isaiah 65 and its connection to the image of heaven in Revelation)?
This also connects to what we considered in Jeremiah on Day 16: The tree in Jeremiah is now a forest. The choice God offers in our Day 2 devotional from Deuteronomy 30 is at work here. If we choose to follow God, we surrender. No doubt about it. To walk in the Way is to eventually, like Ezekiel, to find ourselves swept along by the River of Life. This is an image of remaining and choosing to cooperate with God. We choose how to live: consuming and envying, or wading into the River of Life. What an adventure!
My hope is that Lent is surfacing a desire in all of us and each of us for a "deep and true repentance" (found in John Eldredge's Daily Prayer) to be with God, to enjoy the truth that the Trinity is with us, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Before and behind, to our left and right (see today's song for more).
In John, it is so special to see how cool, relatable, and creative Jesus is. Look at how he submitted to his mom as an adult. John's gospel is just a deep admiration of the heart of the greatest man who ever lived. John 5 is a look at the first persecution of Jesus in the gospel of John (I didn't know that until I wrote this devotional). Of course, the persecution comes on a Sabbath. Jesus dared to command the paralytic by the pool to get up and walk. God made the man well; he stood, and instead of rejoicing, the Pharisees gang up on Jesus. They are miffed when they should be on their knees in worship, or dancing with the newly able-bodied man, but no. What a missed opportunity!
Sadly, it is still all too typical to try to push back the waters of life, control others, and be suspicious of anything that doesn't fit our definition of normal. We love our confirmation bias, and old habits die hard. That's why we are here in Lent, to do the same work we want others to do when we disagree: Repent (or at least show respect for another perspective), and see things a different way. As we read John 5, let us interrogate our self-righteousness. Let's pray for a deep and true repentance.
Prayer Video:
Check out my first landscape flyover prayer video: St. Patrick's Breastplate - I encourage you to pray this prayer for the rest of March.
Song:
And, because it's St. Patrick's Day, here is my favorite version of St. Patrick's Breastplate, SUCH a good, grounding prayer: St. Patrick's Breastplate, Jan Watson
Content for wisdom and contentment at: urenuf.life
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