There’s no comparison between my NYC trip yesterday and what Ezekiel saw as MAJOR glimpse of hope, and a MAJOR revelation of heavens opened when he was in exile in Babylon, BUT there IS something to be said for LIVING in the MOMENT (good or bad)… and trust me, yesterday was GOOD!!!! And something to be said for being embraced by a group of people who don’t have to embrace you but do so – so wholeheartedly… These work-sabbatical people that I am with for 4 weeks surely know how to roll out the red carpet, the passenger vans, the NYC taxis, and the food…  WOW – what a blessing to feel like a team that tries hard to team together!

Thursday’s NYC and the whole trip was the BEST EVER team building I think I’ve ever been on… A 7AM start from work, on a private van bus to the Big Apple! And an amazing scavenger hunt along the way! We were headed to a scientific conference (yes really this was work with team building attached) with many, many vendors and fun ‘swag’ to pick up at the booths. These conferences are fun to dream about new equipment and new procedures, sure, but you don’t know how exciting M&Ms in a tiny metal can look, and pens and pens for ‘swag’ crazy… The vendor interactions were fun too, the last day of their event and the vendors were open to our giddiness, helping satisfy scavenger items like ‘juggling’ or pretending to wear a bowtie held up. There was even a booth from my own company – so my own people seeing that I am energetic nuts! I gave them a business card to hope they realized I was really an employee. They gave away a stuffed firefly advertising a luciferase experiment! Now that is the LIGHT-hearted fun…

Unbelievable delicious brunch and dinner at two different New York institutions (and brought the leftovers home). And singing seventies and eighties music so fun (New York New York – Staying alive – to Last Dance) all the way home… I LOVE my sabbatical so much, I love learning but I can’t even express how much I LOVE these people for the fun and how much they have embraced me as a visitor for these 4 weeks! This was just week one! And yes, it is really unreal how we are similar era folks, knowing the song era, but especially the science too. And we know that we are blessed!

The embrace of hope for yourself is immense when you are navigating this world, from work, life balancing, etc. Finding Heaven on earth is awesome beyond measure. The people, food, sights, especially comradery… Then can you (or really immeasurable to even imagine A GLIMPSE of REAL HEAVEN?!!!  Well, Ezekiel in the Old Testament book after Jeremiah and Lamentations, tells us unbelievable sights!

There was a scavenger hunt item (and you had to take photographs for proof) for “someone broken down” – so we saw a truck crushed and burned but people ok. We saw the burnout – we spoke to the man who said his truck was burned – but he and his dogs were OK – We loved on those little dogs including Hershey – and then we got back on the bus van – we were not broken down and we kept moving…  Situation different but a little fraction of the same in Ezekiel’s time, Ezekiel WAS broken down. Peoples (not listening to God) caused peoples from Jerusalem and those folks from the remnants of the Israelite tribes swept away to Babylon, Ezekiel was taken in the first wave. Ezekiel was bummed out, burnt out in sorrow, but OH, he SAW the LIGHT!!! Ezekiel saw VISIONS of GOD! He knew that exact moment, had been counting the days surely, he saw a windstorm and fire and creatures IN the fire, winged, four-faced creatures, a sight! Under the creatures with legs that glistened like gold were wheels that moved with them – with their spirit, over the creatures was a sparkling crystal vault and a THRONE! WOW! Now – on my trip to NYC I did see the Crystal Ball in Time Square – in a quick turn and take a snapshot while hoofing it to the east side – and I saw beautiful Waterford Crystal in the Irish Restaurant – but Ezekiel saw CRYSTAL VAULT coming from Heaven – with a throne and wow!!!!

When the creatures moved, Ezekiel heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army. AND he heard THE ALMIGHTY! Oh my – can’t even imagine the situation and yet the few chapters of Ezekiel are SO DESCRIPTIVE – see below. 

Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord, fell facedown, heard the voice: “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.”  The Spirit came into Ezekiel and rose him to his feet. WOW! Ezekiel was tasked (as a son of man) to go tell rebellious people (also broken down) to repent and listen to God. Well, imagine the bitterness that Ezekiel had to face – especially after this glimpse of God and yet God gave this Ezekiel the wherewithal and fortitude to carry out his work. The scroll of instructions even tasted of honey and filled him – filling him with the spirit.

There are many times we DO have a glimpse of heaven on earth – that working together – that comradery – that fun – AND THEN there is the JOY of working for the Lord – sharing LOVE and HOPE – being filled with the Spirit and moving fast (although not as fast as those creatures with wings and wheels)…

I don’t know what each day brings – but we do have the opportunity to find the good in it – even on bad days – and let us remember the GOOD days – and really really good ones… And let us remember that Heaven will be EVEN BETTER…

WOW – no scavenger hunt clue will find me into Heaven – because we ARE the scattered and God is scavenging US – just like He was scavenging the peoples of His flock – for years… I will read more later about Ezekiel’s work – but for now, let us keep keepin’ on…  Let us roll with a fraction of the Holy Spirit Wheels – and at least STAND UP like Ezekiel.. It may NOT be ‘Heaven on earth’ always but let us keep going anyway – let us get moving – and let us say WOW!!!!

Amen and PLEASE READ BELOW = and there is also the first few minutes of this video which details the bible story for Ezekiel…  worth the watch…

Keep rolling my friends! Head the Call – Until the “Last Dance”…

Amen again…  here is the video of Ezekiel:

Ezekiel’s Inaugural Vision

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 looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north—an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, but each of them had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four of them had faces and wings, and the wings of one touched the wings of another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved.

Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. They each had two wings spreading out upward, each wing touching that of the creature on either side; and each had two other wings covering its body. Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went. The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it. The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning.

As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not change direction as the creatures went. Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.

When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When the creatures moved, they also moved; when the creatures stood still, they also stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked something like a vault, sparkling like crystal, and awesome. Under the vault their wings were stretched out one toward the other, and each had two wings covering its body. When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings.

Then there came a voice from above the vault over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.

This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking. He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.”  As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

He said: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’ And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious people—they will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or be terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people. You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious people; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”

Then I looked, and I saw a hand stretched out to me. In it was a scroll, which he unrolled before me. On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe.   And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel.”  So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.

He then said to me: “Son of man, go now to the people of Israel and speak my words to them. You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and strange language, but to the people of Israel— not to many peoples of obscure speech and strange language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you. But the people of Israel are not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for all the Israelites are hardened and obstinate. But I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people.”

And he said to me, “Son of man, listen carefully and take to heart all the words I speak to you. Go now to your people in exile and speak to them. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says,’ whether they listen or fail to listen.”  

Ezekiel 1-3:11