A thirty-year-old priest sits with the exiles by a Babylonian canal, in the year he should have begun temple service, and the heavens open. Wheels within wheels, living creatures, a throne, and the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.

Ezekiel begins today, the strangest and most vivid prophet of them all. The first lesson is the location: glory showed up in Babylon.

Everything about Ezekiel's vision defied exile logic. Glory was supposed to live in Jerusalem's temple, yet here it was, wheeled, mobile, blazing, parked over a refugee settlement in enemy territory. The wheels were the sermon: God's throne travels. No deportation can strand you outside His presence.

Hebrews hands the exiles' descendants, and you, the daily discipline that keeps hearts soft in strange lands: fix your thoughts on Jesus, and encourage one another while it is still called Today. Hard hearts grow in isolation. Glory finds rivers in Babylon. Sit by yours expectantly.