Here is a story that never happened, but that doesn’t make it less true…
One night four rabbis were visited by an angel who awakened them and carried them to the Seventh Vault of the Seventh Heaven. There they beheld the sacred Wheel of Ezekiel.
Somewhere in the descent from Paradise to Earth, one Rabbi, having seen such splendor, lost his mind and wandered frothing and foaming until the end of his days.
The second Rabbi was extremely cynical: “Oh I just dreamed Ezekiel’s Wheel, that was all. Nothing really happened.”
The third Rabbi carried on and on about what he had seen, for he was totally obsessed. He lectured and went on nonstop with how it was all constructed and what it all meant….and in his way he went astray and betrayed his faith.
The fourth Rabbi, who was a poet, took a paper in hand and a reed and sat near the window writing song after song praising the evening dove, his daughter in her cradle, and all the stars in the sky. And he lived his life better than before.
It’s Advent, which means that it’s time to wake up. It’s time to once again be on watch for the in-breaking of God’s Spirit among us. When that in-breaking happens, and it always does, we face the question of what we will make of it. Some of us will undervalue it; some of us will overvalue it. Some of us will miss it entirely. But some of us will be captivated just enough to let a new imagination awaken within us. We will learn to become fully alive. And in this way, we will learn to celebrate the gift of new birth.
We are in this together,
Cameron