Thursday, February 7, 2013

Better with Names

Ezra 8:15
I assembled them at the canal that flows toward Ahava, and we camped there three days. When I checked among the people and the priests, I found no Levites there.

With Holy Week coming up early this year, my hands are already full in preparation for our church’s summer VBS. For starters, I have next week’s kick off to focus on. The pressure is to make it an exciting and excellent first impression. With the task manuals printed, schedules to follow, PPT presentation checked and invitations set, the OC-in-me bugs me of what I might still have missed. And again, like last year, God’s word came right on cue.  

Opening on chapter 8, a list of names welcomed me. I quickly rushed through the thirteen verses thinking it was just one of those lineage thing-y. I jumped to the verse noted above and the phrase ‘(Ezra) found no Levites there’ hit me.  With around thousands of people gathered there, he found one tribe wanting: the Levites. What’s happening here was, supposedly, they were the second wave of remnants who will return to Jerusalem. The temple was already rebuilt, but not so much true worship. Ezra, being a scribe in the line of Aaron, was called for this reform.  Seeing no Levites in his team posed a problem. Only these people were set apart to assist the priests in the temple work. Without them, the priests will probably multi-task. No reason was given why they didn’t respond to the recruitment call. Some said, it may be because it was no position of prominence. Regardless, Ezra did not leave without their representation. And when they arrive, each of their names were likewise registered.

When I imagined Ezra writing their names, I also saw him asking their father’s line and meeting the family they brought along with. That’s ‘taking time’. I may understand that the scribe-in-him bugged him on these details, but the fact that the Scripture gave them one-fourth page is something. It made me realize how each name in my volunteer list is as important as my tasks on hand. It readied my heart for possible ‘no-show’ and that I should seek them out and wait on them. Not because Ezra did it. But because God Himself sought the lost-me, called me by name, and relates with me to this time. I know better how that feels like. Time to do better is what’s next.
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Better with Names

Ezra 8:15
I assembled them at the canal that flows toward Ahava, and we camped there three days. When I checked among the people and the priests, I found no Levites there.

With Holy Week coming up early this year, my hands are already full in preparation for our church’s summer VBS. For starters, I have next week’s kick off to focus on. The pressure is to make it an exciting and excellent first impression. With the task manuals printed, schedules to follow, PPT presentation checked and invitations set, the OC-in-me bugs me of what I might still have missed. And again, like last year, God’s word came right on cue.  

Opening on chapter 8, a list of names welcomed me. I quickly rushed through the thirteen verses thinking it was just one of those lineage thing-y. I jumped to the verse noted above and the phrase ‘(Ezra) found no Levites there’ hit me.  With around thousands of people gathered there, he found one tribe wanting: the Levites. What’s happening here was, supposedly, they were the second wave of remnants who will return to Jerusalem. The temple was already rebuilt, but not so much true worship. Ezra, being a scribe in the line of Aaron, was called for this reform.  Seeing no Levites in his team posed a problem. Only these people were set apart to assist the priests in the temple work. Without them, the priests will probably multi-task. No reason was given why they didn’t respond to the recruitment call. Some said, it may be because it was no position of prominence. Regardless, Ezra did not leave without their representation. And when they arrive, each of their names were likewise registered.

When I imagined Ezra writing their names, I also saw him asking their father’s line and meeting the family they brought along with. That’s ‘taking time’. I may understand that the scribe-in-him bugged him on these details, but the fact that the Scripture gave them one-fourth page is something. It made me realize how each name in my volunteer list is as important as my tasks on hand. It readied my heart for possible ‘no-show’ and that I should seek them out and wait on them. Not because Ezra did it. But because God Himself sought the lost-me, called me by name, and relates with me to this time. I know better how that feels like. Time to do better is what’s next.