A view through the window

I have often viewed life like a big comfortable room. A room where all my needs are met. In this room there is a window but there was no need to look out the window as long as I have everything I need. Yet when the comfort provided in that room begins to diminish my attention is drawn to the window. Climbing up on a chair, standing on tiptoe I peer out that window. Suddenly my whole perceptive is changed.

It was the year King Uzziah died that Isaiah saw the Lord. Uzziah had reigned for 52 years. His had been a prosperous reign. I think we as humans like to find security in what is familiar. When Uzziah died the question hung in the air,"What will happen now?" This is when Isaiah got a view through the window."I saw the Lord seated on the throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple”(Isiah 6:1).

For Ezekiel his visions of God happened while he was among the exiles who had been taken into Babylon. He had been from a priestly background. Ezekiel had been taken away from his home and I can only imagine  the uncertainty he would feel about what would happen next. That is when God gave him a view through the window. "The expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man...Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him”(Ezekiel 1:25-28).

John was the last of the disciples and according to the historian Tertullian he survived being boiled in oil before he was exiled to the island of Patmos. In his own words he was a companion in the suffering and patient endurance that was his because he belonged to Jesus. But he also received a view through the window and this is what he saw someone, "like a son of man," dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair like wool, as white as snow, his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters...His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance”(Revelation 1:12-16).

I really like to be comfortable but when that comfort is taken away I am drawn to the window. When I look through the window of prophecy I gain perspective.