Monthly Archives: March 2015

Chapter-a-Day

Oak and Vine

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In January of 2012 we had an unusually warm week and the dead vine in our backyard had enough life in it to sprout a single bloom.
In January of 2012 we had an unusually warm week and the dead vine in our backyard had enough life in it to sprout a single bloom.

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, how is the wood of a vine different from that of a branch from any of the trees in the forest?”
Ezekiel 15:1-2 (NIV)

I have written on occasion about the majestic old oak tree that stood sentinel outside our house in Pella. During our decade living there, Old Man Oak would occasionally drop a branch on the driveway. The branches were heavy and the solid wood would have been useful for any number of projects had I been a wood worker inclined to make something useful from the fallen limb.

In the backyard of the same house was a climbing vine that would perennially climb a trellis set between our and our neighbor’s yard. It was gorgeous in the summer when it wove its way up the framework of the arbor and blossomed in fiery orange blooms. In the autumn, however, the vines died and became ugly brown sinews that had to be painstakingly cut and pulled from the trellis. The remnants of the vine were dead, ugly, tangled, and absolutely useless for anything other than nature’s own recycling system.

That is exactly the word picture Ezekiel makes about the people of Jerusalem in today’s chapter. God’s people had once been a fruitful vine but had grown spiritually lifeless, tangled up in idolatry, and useless. As such, the result was to be thrown on the burn pile – a prophetic word picture of the coming Babylonian siege of Jerusalem and its destruction.

I’m reminded this morning of Jesus’ own take on the same metaphor:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” John 15:5-8 (NIV)

Today, I’m find myself a little introspective. Ezekiel’s prophecy and Jesus’ metaphor begs the question: “What good am I? Am I fruitful? Am I useful? Is there Life in the limbs of my existence, my labor, and my relationships?”

Wayfarer's Journal

Moved In!

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The weekend has been a blur. My muscles are aching. My body is tired. But, we are successfully moved in to our new house. Wendy and I actually got possession of the house on Friday morning after a walk through with our contractor. The cleaning crew was here polishing everything up. The televisions got hooked up and the appliances delivered. Wendy and I made a few loads to get the fragile stuff moved over that we wanted to personally handle. After grabbing a bite we returned to sleep in the new house and received our first visit from the neighbors, Kevin and Linda! 🙂 We then spent our first night in the new digs.

Suzanna was starring in Anne of Green Gables this weekend, so Mom Hall came down from Ankeny to help Suzanna and to let Suzanna stay at the hotel away from the chaos. She also helped us with the clean up and move which was a huge blessing.

Saturday morning the movers arrived at the house on Columbus just before nine and an amazing crew of friends showed up to help. While the movers set about moving things from the main house, our friends helped me empty the storage shed. “Many hands (and vehicles) make work light,” and I was amazed when one trip was about all we needed to empty the shed. While one crew went back for the final boxes from the shed, another headed to the house to load up patio furniture and etc. One more trip to the house emptied the garage and by noon our local crew had done all there was for them to do.

Wendy and I ordered pizza for our faithful helpers as our movers arrived with the main load comprising of everything from the main and second floors. They emptied and returned to the old house for one last load of stuff from the basement. They had that emptied and the entire move was completed by supper time.

Whew.

Now for the unpacking and bring ordering to the chaos. Thanks to Mom Hall, Brad, Paul, Kev, Matthew, Chad, Shay, Nathan, Aaron, and Camille for their friendship and hard work!

Chapter-a-Day

We’re All Suckers for a Love Story

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skyfall_bond_girls-620x359I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols.
Ezekiel 14:5 (NIV)

Let me confess something to you. I am a sucker for a great love story. Wendy, Taylor, Madison and Suzanna can all tell you that I’m a real softie when it comes to a well written tear jerker. Don’t get me wrong. I am a guy and I love my action movies, but have you ever noticed that even that all great action movies have a love story woven through them? Script writers learned long ago that love stories are a core part of the human experience and a big part of what we respond to as we sit in front of that screen.

I believe that this has a great deal to do with how God created us. The Great Story that God reveals between the beginning of Genesis and the final chapter of John’s Revelation is a love story. It is the love story between God and humanity. God even uses the metaphor of marriage to describe the relationship between Jesus and His followers.

There is no relationship that doesn’t have its ups and downs. Even the best of marriages suffer their share of conflict. So it is with the Great Story. At the point of the story in which Ezekiel is telling, the relationship between God and His people is experiencing acute relational pain. God’s people have been adulterous. Their hearts and spirits had strayed. They had given their greatest affection to other idols and gods. There was a significant break in the relationship, and God was intent on “recapturing the hearts of the people.”

I find it hard to imagine worshipping the kinds of idols that stole the hearts of people in Ezekiel’s day. Worshipping at a pagan shrine or making an “offering” to have sex with a temple prostitute of the local fertility god is something I can’t even fathom. And yet, it seems to me that being driven by lust to have sex with a prostitute in service to Asherah is really no different than being driven by lust to masturbate to pornography or have sex with a prostitute in service to the almighty dollar. Our idols have changed faces over the millennia, but the core relational issues remain the same.

Today, I am thinking about the idols that steal my affections from God. And, I am grateful for God’s never ending desire and efforts to recapture my wayward heart.