Zion - I Was Born There

"The LORD records as he registers the peoples, 'This one was born there.'"  Psalm 87:6

I was born in Zion, the city of God.  As a believer this is my new homeland.  At least it is according to Psalm 87.  It's funny because last I checked I was born in Chattanooga, TN at some hospital I've forgotten the name of.  But in the mystery of knowing God comes this: those who follow him are given a new home and a new birth-place.

Last week, my wife, Melissa, put a pot of chili on the stove, set the temperature to high and left the house for three hours.  We came back to a flaming pot of chili and a very smoky house!  Coughing and sputtering we held our breath and ran to windows, flinging them open in an attempt to breathe.  We didn't eat chili.

It's been about a week and our house still smells like a chain-smoker lived there, though it's getting better by the day.  Apparently Melissa had set the stove to high just to get it warmed up, planning on setting it to low before she left.  Needless to say she felt pretty "stoopid," but she must have simply forgot, and our house got smoky.

This morning I feel like I'm still stumbling through those smoky rooms.  I've been riding the emotional tilter-whirl again and frankly, I must have had way to much cotton candy, cause I'm feeling sort of sick.

One day I'm up, the next day I'm down.  And on days like today, where I'm somewhere in the middle, I feel hunted (I'm also craving coffee as my source of life.  Though it just makes the emotional swinging more vigorous, I sometimes opt for it anyway, because I'm a man in love.)

That's why the "habit of devotion" (The Valley of Vision) is so important for me.  I need to be reminded, every day, of who I am, who I belong to and, since my earthly home's probably going to burn down anyway, where I was born.  I was born in the city of God.

When God looks at me, he records, "This one was born there."  Cool.