EZEKIEL VISIONS BLOG
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” – Ezekiel 37:4-5
Make Straight My Path
In my counseling sessions this month, my focus has revolved primarily around my desire for linear living. Problem is, life isn’t linear and, for a control freak like me, that is incredibly difficult to wrap my mind around. Healing isn’t linear. Grief isn’t linear. Learning isn’t linear. Love isn’t linear. You name it, I can’t control it.
It matters.
Whether it was my baptism, the baptism of my children, the exchange of my marital vows on the altar, my anointing in a triage unit in the emergency room, or a funeral Mass, it was in those moments that He climbed down into my life and met me in my joy, in my grief, in my hope, in my loss, and in my humanness and He imparted on me more of Him, so I could have less of myself. And, thank God for that.
the Gift of Receiving
Finding myself in great need was the means to discovering what God wanted me to learn about myself. As the beautiful first chapter of James explains, every good and perfect gift comes from above. It became necessary that I learn to open my heart to the capacity to receive. Because our entire Sacramental life revolves around receiving Him, I believe it is necessary to know how.
Part 3: the Blacksmith
Through high temperatures and under great force, we are forged into better beings. Through a wide variety of events in our lives, we are twisted, upset, flattened, tapered, and curved into beauty. We become malleable. And, sometimes it gets messy, dirty, and loud, but that is the art of blacksmithing – the change that inevitably occurs.
Part 2 - the Weaver
If the Supreme Weaver exists, it is true that the Supreme Unweaver also exists. And, life – our Great Tapestry – is made up of a myriad of beautiful, marvelous, and wonderful details. But, it also comes with many little imperfections – sin, struggle, death, devastation, traumatic experiences, loss, and disappointment. The Supreme Weaver, though not the creator of those imperfections, works to make the necessary adjustments on our behalf, to heal in our favor and to mend our mistakes.
Art in Process
This is the beautiful commotion of art in progress. Burning, weaving, melting, spinning, digging, carving, sloshing, layering, erasing... art gets to the end after hours of process. That process is the very means to its beauty.