Zeke and me...

So, I just have to share a sweet, encouraging thing God’s done…those “reminder, He’s got a plan” kinda things.

This morning I was looking for a scripture in Ezekiel. It was for something else, non labyrinth related, and I knew what I was looking for was in Ezekiel, but just couldn’t remember the specific reference, other than it was somewhere chapter 40ish. Then I did remember that I had it underlined in an old Bible of mine. SO, I got that out and started looking thru the underlined parts. Well, before I even got to the part I was looking for, this is what I found…

Ezekiel 42:16-20 ~ NIV

 He measured the east side with the measuring rod; it was five hundred cubits. He measured the north side; it was five hundred cubits^; by the measuring rod. He measured the south side; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. Then he turned to the west side and measured; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall around it, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to separate the holy from the common.

The underlining is mine. It stopped me right there….and that’s why and what I have to share with you. See? This was underlined years ago…pre-labyrinth thinking for me. Waaaaay before this whole thing started, but not for God. I can’t remember why I would have underlined those particular lines, but I did! And now, the labyrinth is on the east side of our house, separate from the rest of the yard, the alley and the street…separate from the common. Because God knew this would all be there one day.

I’ve shared with y’all how the rocks for the paths were already over there, the bamboo was planted in just the right places and all the other things that were “just right”. The beauty that stuck me today was that His word was there before, too. Underlined and all! The book of Ezekiel isn’t one that you hear quoted very often, I know. But, over the years God has used this book of the Bible to assure and encourage me, so this was particularly special to me.

As I have spent the last few days bagging up all the bamboo leaves, it gave me plenty of time to think….and to listen, too. His Word really is living and active and that means now. Not only that It was “active” when it was written, but now ~ today. The only thing that keeps us seeing and living in that “now”, is to be actively reading and studying His Word. Just like the labyrinth, which became buried under leaves so the paths were indistinguishable, our lives do that, too. We get buried under plans and schedules and stuff. It takes effort, intentional effort, to rake out the things that keep us from seeing God’s path for us. And really? We only need to see the next step, not the whole itinerary.

 Now that you have taken care to purify your souls through your submission to the truth, you can experience real love for each other. So love each other deeply from a [pure] heart. ²³ You have been reborn—not from seed that eventually dies but from seed that is eternal—through the Word of God that lives and endures forever.

I Peter 1:22 & 23  ~ The Voice Version

Crunchy Parts

Well, it is raining bamboo leaves right now! In the coming months the giant timber bamboo will begin to push up new shoots and leaf out again, but before that happens…off with the old! We have had several really windy days and I hadn’t realized just how bad it had gotten, until a couple of friends came over to visit the labyrinth for the first time. We could hardly see the path in a few places! So, today I started bagging up the leaves and hopefully that will get things spruced up for summer in the next week or so.

You can see on this leaf just how the bamboo leaves look before they fall. The stark contrast is amazing to me. The dying part of the leaf is striped in the opposite direction and brown, not green and it’s crunchy, not soft. Isn’t that the way of this world? Stuff that comes at us and wants to move in the door doesn’t always have such a stark contrast, tho’ does it? Sometimes it is easy for us to see that “it” is brown and not green and goes in the opposite direction of God, but other times we just don’t notice the crunchy part. I think that’s why God gave us His Word. It is tangible, readable…we just need to be teachable, ‘cuz when we don’t use God’s Word to get to know Him and learn, we limit our learning to our own experiences, yet “our” words cannot contain God.

His word is what is breathing Life into this world of ours. He brings out blooms where we didn’t anticipate, just to remind us, He’s right there. (and probably so we don’t get a big head and think we did it all by ourselves) Just like this ginger blooming...a little early and in a whole lot of shade, God's work in our lives is not diminished by the circumstances around us.

  

Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives.

God himself put it this way:

“I’ll live in them, move into them;
    I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.
So leave the corruption and compromise;
    leave it for good,” says God.
“Don’t link up with those who will pollute you.
    I want you all for myself.
I’ll be a Father to you;
    you’ll be sons and daughters to me.”
The Word of the Master, God.

II Corinthians 6:14-16

Isn’t that beautiful? We have His Word on it, so don’t worry about the crunchy parts, He’ll show them to us and make it clear what needs to get bagged up and tossed out of our lives, His temple! Let's take Him at His Word and hand Him the rake!