Ezekiel 48:35 And the name of the city from that time on shall be, “The Lord Is There.”
This time last year, Chip and I had the opportunity to tour Ireland with two dear friends. After an all night flight from Philadelphia, we arrived in Dublin early the next morning. Although we were exhausted, we hit the ground running. We checked into our hotel and decided to walk to a local attraction where we had secured reservations for a tour. Adrenaline was kicking in!
It should have taken us about 45 minutes to get to our destination, but two hours later we were still walking, still searching. Only with a little less adrenaline. Tom had tried unsuccessfully to google a map. We were lost. Strains of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” ran through my mind. Afterall, Bono is from Dublin!
But our little trek through Irish streets turned out to be one of the most interesting of our whole trip. As we walked through the neighborhoods, we viewed the lovely multi-colored door fronts from a unique perspective. And when we stopped to ask various locals for directions, we experienced their warm hospitable culture, up close and personal. I’ll never forget the two barmaids standing in front of their pub. They insisted we should take a bus and one of them even went into the pub to exchange our euros into coins.
We (somewhat miraculously) arrived at our destination in time for our tour. But we’d experienced a pretty cool de-tour. However, not all detours are pleasant.
Israel experienced a severe detour in their call as the people of God. You would think they would have learned after the 40 years in the wilderness, but years later new golden calves emerged to steal their affection. Their rebellion and idolatry resulted in being exiled to Babylon. The Lord justly punished them, but did not forsake them. The book of Ezekiel concludes with one of the most hopeful passages in all of scripture. They would belong to a new city. A city called “The Lord Is There.” Destination complete.
I don’t know what kind of detours you might be going through in your life. But I hope you know the Lord is with you. He has a reason for the detours. Just don’t lose sight of the destination.
As long as you press into him, you will find what your soul is looking for.