riverside visions

My imagination was captured this morning by the first few verses of the book of Ezekiel. Chapter 1:1-3 tell of the start of his days as a prophet: “In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin — the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of the Lord was on him.”

I tried to put myself in Ezekiel’s shoes. Thirty years old, five years in exile. Nothing so far, at least nothing noted, to make him different than any other Jew. Just an ordinary guy, one of many Jews living along the Kebar River. Just another day, the fifth of the month - it says the fourth month so was it spring? Did the Jewish calendar correspond to ours? - when Ezekiel was going about his business, whenever that was.

And then, bam! The heavens opened - what does that mean? Did the clouds part? Was there bright light? Did anyone else notice anything? - and suddenly Ezekiel was seeing visions of God. God laid his hand on him, and he was at that moment a prophet of God.

What did that feel like? Was Ezekiel exhilarated? Terrified? Dismayed? Overawed? I try to imagine this young man, the age of my kids, and the disruption that struck his life like lightning out of a blue sky. And the great wonder and privilege of seeing and hearing God.

I’m reminded that God calls in many different ways. Some people, like me, get a lot of choice on how we work through questions of obedience and service. Some don’t. Ezekiel by the river and Saul on the road to Damascus come to mind. So does Richard Stearns, current director of World Vision, who tells how he resisted a call away from a successful career as a business executive to lead that agency, but how persistently God laid the call on him.

But I think, as I reflect on it, that in God’s eyes there are no lesser calls. I don’t think Ezekiel’s obedience was prized by God more highly than mine. In some ways, he had it harder because he had very specific instructions to follow. In some ways, I have a greater challenge because I’m not always sure what obedience looks like. In either case, provided we do our best to discern God’s will and follow it, I think God is pleased.

Today, God finds me in the middle of my ordinary life, just as he did Ezekiel. And today, he calls me to obedient witness. If I look, he’ll reveal something of himself to me. If I listen, he’ll call me to specific acts of service. What will that look like? I’m going to have to figure that out. But I want to, because for today, that’s my call. Tomorrow could be different.