I often feel vulnerable to the chaos of unexpected natural disasters, financial insecurities, joblessness, threats of international terrorists, consumerism which teases me with unhealthy choices, and other things.  Perhaps it’s that state of our nation and the world that prompted me to consider more deeply the house of God in this year’s annual reading of Scripture.  

 

With my journal and pencil in hand, I read the descriptions once again of the beautiful symbolic designs the craftsmen made for worship in the tabernacle.  I stopped for a lingering meditation in the Holy of Holies; the place where the glory of God dwelled.  My love for research began a long list of references about this space beginning with the cherubim.  These were angelic beings whose images were hammered out of pure gold; they sheltered the Ark of the Covenant which God protected all along the journey from Mt. Sinai; they were guardians and they represented the presence of God.  

 

As I progressed in this work, I read a lot about being sheltered and finding refuge and a hiding place in the presence of God.  And because the historical depiction of cherubim runs the gamut from angelic iconography to gryphon-like animals, I took away everything in the image except the overshadowing wings.  They are my reminders that my safety is not in a tabernacle or its symbols, but in the God of the tabernacle with whom I can have conversations throughout my day.  He dwells in me!  He is not a symbol to me but Jehovah Shammah; the God who is here to protect me and to bring peace of mind in the midst of any uncertainty I face.  

 

Exodus 37:7-9, Psalm 61:4; Psalm 32:7, Psalm 91:1, Ezekiel 48:35; 1Corinthians 3:16, 1 Peter 2:5, Ephesians 2:20-22