Scripture: Ezekiel 1:16, 18 – “As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl, and the four had the same form, their construction being something like a wheel within a wheel. … Their rims were tall and awesome, for the rims of all four were full of eyes all around.” (NRSVue)
There are few passages in the Bible more bizarre than the beginning of the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a priest and one of the first people exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon. One day, while he is by a river, he has this weird vision. There are flashes of lightning and four “living creatures” each with four faces and four wings. They fly or ride on wheels which move in strange directions. Then as bits of coal fly around, Ezekiel sees a figure of fire and light, which then speaks to him. The entire encounter is described in great detail, which ironically makes things more confusing rather than less.
Since Ezekiel’s vision was first read, people have been trying to make sense of it. Jewish mystics used it as the foundation for their meditations on unknowable divine reality. Erich von Däniken famously wrote that Ezekiel saw a UFO! So, what do you make of this kind of thing?
I think most of us write off these kinds of visions as esoteric or irrelevant. However, I think that being exposed to the bizarre side of God can be beneficial to us. Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, a season in which we are forced to get out of our comfortable ways of acting and thinking to examine our mortality and sinfulness and try to prepare ourselves to better appreciate the grace of God. Lent is necessary because we get complacent in our faith. We think we know what and who God is. But sometimes, something needs to shock us, something like Ezekiel’s vision. We need to know that God is not just what we think, but so much more.
Where do you find God? Some people find God in simple, ordinary, but beautiful parts of life. But these things are easy for us to take for granted. Some find God in marvelous, miraculous, or strange. But these things are easy to write off as too confusing. This can create a binary where people can just ignore God no matter what they see. As people of faith, we need to have our eyes open to the presence of God, not matter what form it takes.
What is the weirdest thing you have ever thought about God? Did that make God seem closer to you or farther away? Do you need God to shock you out of complacency or God to make sense for you in a senseless world? These are the kinds of questions we ask ourselves during Lent, for it is by challenging ourselves that we transform ourselves into the people God wants us to be.
Prayer: God, let me know your presence and glory in all the bizarre and mundane things around me. Amen.
Artwork: "Ezekiel's Vision" by Kirk Wright
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