My resting place

Morning Prayer.

‘For the LORD has chosen Zion;

he has desired it for his habitation:

“This is my resting place forever;

here I will reside, for I have desired it.”’

Psalm 132:13, 14

The prophet Ezekiel is given a vision of God’s glory departing the temple, and, later, returning (Ezekiel chapters 10 and 11, and 43). Zion is God’s resting place forever; but God goes on journeys. God leads his people out into the world, into the unknown. God proves himself to be more than a local deity.

Rest is not immobility, not the closing-down of a small world. A resting-place is not a place where one lies down and refuses to go elsewhere. Resting places are a provision, not a prison. A place we long for, with a longing that renews us; a place to call home. And God, who is deeply invested in the physical world—who will, one day, renew this world—has a physical address, not a metaphysical one.

Where is your resting place? When were you last there? Are you there at present; or on a journey, short or long?

Or have you yet to discover the place that elicits that desire in you?