At a (virtual) conference I’m attending this week, I got to hear Jo Saxton talk about waiting; how lately we all have moments when we’re just waiting for things to go back to normal. I hear the word “wait” and tend to think of some Jack Johnson lyrics, where he seems to be in the midst of a situation that has no chance of changing soon. And yet Jo used the example of Ezekiel, who was commissioned a watchman. And a watching isn’t just sitting, waiting, wishing, in a bored, relaxed, stupor. She pointed out that a watchman had to be alert, ready to announce the presence of friends or foes. The Hebrew word used to describe Ezekiel’s job means “to peer into the distance.” It’s not so much a passive waiting, but an active searching. Are we waiting for things to go back to what’s familiar? Or are we peering into the distance toward God’s next move?
