Suddenly, the glory of the God of Israel appeared from the east. The sound of his coming was like the roar of rushing waters, and the whole landscape shone with his glory.  Ezekiel 43:2 (NKJV)

Have you ever taken a long vacation where you were gone for a week or more? I had an aunt who had a cabin in Cascade, Colo. Every summer, we would spend at least a week at this cabin. It had a big stone fireplace with plenty of firewood, a guesthouse behind the main house, a radio but no TV, and barrels of nuts we could feed to the squirrels. There was a mule who lived in the house behind – Milton Burro – who would bray loudly at various times of the day. We would go to Santa Claus Land to feed the goats and check out the toy stores there. It was a little slice of heaven for that week, and we looked forward to our annual trips out there.

I can tell you, however, that nothing glowed brighter than when we got back home again from vacation. We would unpack the car and haul stuff inside the house. The laundry would be piled up by the washing machine and we would start cleaning clothes while we ate food off our own plates and drank from our own cups. We slept in our own beds, and everything just seemed to slide into place.

This passage from Ezekiel comes when the prophet is describing the Temple in Jerusalem that would come about at some point after the exiles came home from Babylon. This specific verse talks about when God enters that Temple and comes home to his place and his people.  

We have all seen magnificent sights. They may be sunrises or sunsets over the open areas of the High Plains region, they may be dolphins playing in the ocean waters, they may be the majestic mountains with hidden lakes at their feet that sparkle in the sun. Those scenes that insert themselves into our memories and lift us up when we’re feeling beaten down. The sight of God coming home to his Temple is more magnificent than anything we’ve yet seen.  

I don’t know this, but I don’t think that God is necessarily waiting for his Temple in Jerusalem to be built before he comes home. I believe that God’s home is in our hearts and when he is invited home there, he sparkles even more than this verse suggests.

I believe that when God comes home to our hearts, he slowly unpacks his stuff inside us so that we become more aware of the life around us. Instead of piling his laundry beside the washing machine, he washes us up so that we shine. We take our meals with him and, when we go to bed, he watches over us while we sleep – and continues to do so when we wake up. There isn’t anything better than coming home to our place.

Becky Gillette is a former teacher, newspaper reporter, and preacher who seeks to take an original approach to life’s lessons. She is the author of “Jessie’s Corner: Something to Think About,” a collection of articles which she wrote for a weekly newspaper.