Lost in the Land of Oz

"The whole land is made desolate, because no one takes it to heart." Jeremiah 12:11b

A sea of green loomed before him. Like an old friend the ocean of grass waved at him. And yet the movement of the wind only served to stir the uneasiness in his heart. Despite the fact that he belonged, one might even say he "owned" the land. He never felt that it was his. Some things you can tell a person a thousand times and the truth of it continues to elude them. As if a veil hangs over their heart. Fear has a way of thriving in the darkness.

One has to wonder what Jacob was thinking about when he made his way back to Canaan. It had been so long. Would anything be the same? For that matter did he want it to be the same as it ever was? Was his perception of the land and its hazards really just an expression of the hazards of his own heart? The land would in no way betray him. But would he betray his own heart. Jacob seemed plagued with relational conflict; Esau, his two wives and then those malcontented children who could barely get along with themselves let alone the surrounding population.

Today the land is desolate. A thousand battles have been fought over it. A thousand more may be yet to come. The way Jeremiah speaks of the land one would think he believed the land could feel the pain. Land meant to be lived in had become uninhabitable because no one took it to heart.

The most important question is "what 'it' is?" Is "it" the land (which would be the nearest referent). Or is it something more? In which respect the land would be a poetic metaphor veiling a more complex idea. And whose land is this anyway? Is it Jeremiah's land or is this God's land we speak of? Contextually speaking Jeremiah seems to be lamenting his loss. The land is a loss. To his people and therefore to him as well. The land is larger than geography (though it is all that). The land is all that constitutes the hopes and dreams of a redeemed people. A redemption they failed to live up to.

And so the land is lost. How much is lost to us because we fail to live up to our redemption? Are we to believe that God is without expectation? That he is some gray old man hiding behind a curtain with an intimidating voice encountered by Dorothy in the Land of Oz. So we follow our own yellow brick roads in hopes of finding our way home. God forbid all he is can be hidden behind a large curtain and a booming voice. We are in need of a stouter God than that. A God who once he finds us, knows what to do with us. A God who knows not only how to save us, but how to change us. How to make us livable again. Sola Gracia -WHB