“But I the LORD will speak what I will, and it shall be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, you rebellious house, I will fulfill whatever I say, declares the Sovereign LORD.”
– Ezekiel 12:25
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like to pretend? Do you let your imagination go wild at times? For a time when your grandpaa was a Moody Bible Institute student and your grandmaa and grandpaa were the Zeiger-Mueller Funeral Home caretakers, your Aunt Lynn had an imaginary friend. It was a month or so after your Aunt Lynn celebrated her second birthday when your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn moved into the four small rooms that are located at the back of Zeiger-Mueller Funeral Home. A couple of days before moving to Zeiger-Mueller Funeral Home, your grandmaa and grandpaa knew nothing about Zeiger-Mueller Funeral Home let alone having thought about living in a funeral home. After your grandmaa and grandpaa lived in Chicago for about two months while your grandpaa was a student at Moody Bible Institute, your grandmaa and grandpaa found themselves in a desperate financial straight. It was after your grandmaa and grandpaa no longer had money to even buy food, a gal – who was the wife of an embalmer and who your grandmaa had gotten to know at the church where your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn went to every Sunday – which was the Northwest Alliance Church in Chicago – called your grandmaa one day to ask if she could come over to see her. Marlene arrived at the flat on the west side of Chicago that your grandmaa and grandpaa were renting with the wife of one of the owners of Zeiger-Mueller Funeral Home in a car that was filled with brown paper bags that were filled with groceries, toiletries and goodies. Your grandpaa knows that this is the third time at least that he has written about how God unexpectedly, providentially helped your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn over 34 years ago (over 50 years ago at the time of this missive’s editing). What took place on that day in the fall of 1974 – when God made it possible – without any help from your grandmaa or grandpaa, for your grandpaa to continue being a Moody Bible Institute student without having to think or worry about where the money was going to come from in order to pay rent for a place to live, for food to eat, for utilities costs so that there would be electricity and water, for . . . could only have happened because God – in His inexplicable, divine way of doing things, can without absolutely any trouble at all make these kinds of opportune life changes and/or directions take place. The Zeiger-Mueller Funeral Home owners paid your grandmaa and grandpaa $100 a week to be the caretakers of their funeral home plus your grandmaa and grandpaa did not have to pay anything to live in the rooms in at the back of the funeral home nor did they have to pay any utilities costs; your grandmaa and/or grandpaa just had to be 24/7 in the funeral home – except for Sunday mornings.
The room that your dad and Aunt Lynn slept in at Zeiger-Mueller Funeral Home had bunk beds. Your dad slept in the top bunk bed while your Aunt Lynn slept in the bottom bunk bed. While your Aunt Lynn was playing one day, your grandmaa heard your Aunt Lynn talking to someone. When your grandmaa asked your Aunt Lynn who she was talking to, your Aunt Lynn said that she was talking to her friend. When your grandmaa asked your Aunt Lynn if her friend had a name, your Aunt Lynn told your grandmaa that her friend’s name was Jesus. Your Aunt Lynn than pointed to a place near her on her bunk bed and told your grandmaa that Jesus was sitting there. Your Aunt Lynn – at another time, did not want your grandmaa to close the bathroom door while she was in the bathroom as she did not want your grandmaa to close the door on her friend Jesus. Your grandpaa believes that the continuous presence of God – as God the Spirit, in the life of a Christ-follower guy, gal or kid is constantly being manifested – that at times a manifestation of God – as God the Spirit, will lead a guy, gal or kid to visualize and/or sense the actual presence of God – as God the Spirit, or as God the Son.
Ezekiel was a spokesman for God – as God the Father, during the final days of God’s specially chosen guys and gals rebelling against the expectations that He had for them – which were that they were to only worship Him instead of worshipping manmade inanimate gods that were handmade from wood, stone, clay and metal. Ezekiel had a direct communication line to God – as God the Father. One of the things that God – as God the Father, mandated Ezekiel to do – which Ezekiel recorded in Ezekiel 12, was to figuratively act out what God – as God the Father, said would take place to His specially chosen guys and gals if . . . verse 25 says, “But I the LORD will speak what I will, and it shall be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, you rebellious house, I will fulfill whatever I say, declares the Sovereign LORD.’”” God – as God the Father, told Ezekiel to pack all his belongings in a bag in plain view of the guys and gals who were living in city of Jerusalem as if he was going to be taken away by the Babylonian people group army into exile. God – as God the Father, also told Ezekiel that after he finished packing all his things in a bag, that he was to dig through the evening – using just his hands and in plain view of the guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem, a hole through the wall where he was living to haul his bag of stuff through and then to walk off as if being taken away into exile. God – as God the Father, then had Ezekiel tremble as another sign of what will happen to His specially chosen guys and gals if . . . when God’s specially chosen guys and gals did not get it why Ezekiel did what he did, God – as God the Father, did what He said that He would do to them. If God’s specially chosen guys and gals had obeyed Him 2594 years ago, what do you think that Israel would be like today?
Ezekiel 12 (968)