Read: Ezekiel 1

The tee-shirts are washed, the lanyards printed, the craft ordered and the church cleaned. The volunteers are briefed, so all that’s left is to open the doors and let the holiday club begin!

It’s exciting! Here we are, the church, God’s people. We’ve good news of God’s love for a world that desperately needs it. After months of hard work, we’re moments away from being able to share it. This light is about to shine in the darkness!

Fast forward.

The doors are locked and the last bit of mess has been cleared up. The team’s in the hall, ready to debrief the day. And an air of intense glumness fills the room. It’s only been one day of holiday club, but already the police have had to be called. One leader has been punched, another has had all sorts of abuse hurled at them. Half the activities had to be cancelled, and the football is still missing.

This isn’t right. We were meant to be sharing good news with these young people, not fighting to keep the door closed after we’ve finally managed to get rid of them. Yes, we live in a challenging area, but surely God’s up to the challenge? Why has it gone this way?

Have you ever been there? The apparent reality of your present situation standing in such stark contrast to how you know it’s meant to be? God can seem so far away…

Rewind.

Israel, God’s holy people, are in Babylon. Jerusalem, that beautiful city where kings ruled under God, is in ruins. The temple, where the glory of God dwelt on earth, is destroyed.

They’re meant to be this shining light to the nations around them. Look at them now! Slaves to a nation of brutes whose barbaric gods laugh in the face of the God of Israel.

God must be very far away…

One day Ezekiel has a vision of how things truly are. Sitting by a river in Babylon he sees sights that, I’ll admit, made no sense to me when I first read them. But Ezekiel is an Israelite, and he knows the stories and symbols of his people. When he sees creatures with many wings, wheels within wheels, and heavy clouds, he knows there’s only one explanation – God is here.

Ezekiel won’t have seen the vision and wonder what’s going on. He will have wondered why: why is God in Babylon? He lives in his temple! Not here in this awful land!

But his people are there, and he promised to be with his people. If his people are in exile in Babylon, he’ll go too.

This is the amazing God Christians worship – the God and his love that we want to share with children and young people at the holiday club. The Israelites deserved to be in exile. They’d had chance upon chance to be the people God called them to be, and instead they became more and more corrupt with each passing king. But God remained faithful, even joining them in their exile.

So we fast forward to the holiday club. Or the church that struggles to make Jesus known to their community. Or the Christian whose faith remains a mystery to their friends and family. We fast forward to the places today where there are so many questions. With Ezekiel we can be sure of one thing – wherever God’s people are, he’s there. However bleak it looks, he’s on the throne.

And remember, the Israelites did return from exile.