I came across an interesting passage in Ezekiel 48 today.
In this passage God lays out instructions for how the land and the city is to be allocated and laid out. God even goes so far as to say who will be neighbours!!
There is land to be set apart for the Lord, within that, they were to build the "sanctuary of the LORD" and it was to border on the land given to the priests. Each tribe was allocated land as they had need. A portion was to be set aside for the prince and a portion for a 'community garden' to feed the city workers. When you begin to look at these elements it becomes obvious that God has a plan for how we are to be in community together.
Isn't amazing that the God of the universe, with all the He has on His mind, would take time to plan out the neighbourhood for His chosen people. When you look deeper, it becomes clear that until this century, people's natural tendency was to organize themselves in this way.
Think about it.... Small rural towns, all over the continent looked about the same. Church at the centre, the church manse beside, parkland in the centre and some sort of community garden.
Can WHERE we live, impact HOW we live??
It seems to me that the more "big box" monstrosities that go up, and the further they are away from our homes, the more it disconnects us from the community that we are to be a part of. Gone are the days of Corner convenience stores where kids begin to learn independence by running to get milk, or sharing their 'fun money' with their friends. Kids no longer walk to the school down the street.
Is it possible that by disconnecting from our communities, that we are disconnecting some important part of ourselves??
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1 comment:
Laura, I'm going to need to spend some time with this passage because your thoughts are so in line with mine and my husbands! Yes, I do think we are disconnecting to our communities and missing so much in the process. We live in a suburb but God is developing a passion in us for the mid-town area. This summer, my boys and I had ice cream in a historic soda shop near downtown. I spoke with an elder man that worked there about how much we are enjoying "discovering" this area of town and he said "the suburb's are just so sterile." And I thought "how true."
But then also, we want to work towards developing community where ever we are - in our current neighbor, at our kiddos' school, and at our jobs.
Thanks for this post!
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