Barley Field Theophany

Moses saw God descending in fire
That ringed the mountain top
With a trumpet’s deafening blast
As that mountain quaked God’s presence
Because sometimes God shows up,
With thunder-smoke and trembling. 

Isaiah saw a thrice-holy God
And six-winged seraphs
Bearing red-scorching coals
Because sometimes God shows up,
So high and lifted
That angel choirs raise an endless holy – holy – holy. 

Ezekiel saw God in a whirlwind
A sucking vortex of fire that consumed itself
With other-worldly brightness blazing forth.
And creatures whose beating wings
Echoed like marching armies.
Because sometimes God shows up,
with a voice that roars like many waters.

Those ancient prophets saw Him
In earth-quaking, smoke-churning, thunder-roaring visions
With a thousand wings fluttering their choruses of holies.

But sometimes God shows up in a barley field.
Where sweaty workers gather grain
Under blazing midday sun.
And they spill a little extra grain at the field’s edges
And a widow who turned away from Moab to start walking toward God
Finds her way to that barley field.
And there she gains
A seat at His table
A place in His family.
Because sometimes God shows up in a barley field ...

and Boaz begot Obed;
Obed begot Jesse,
and Jesse begot David.
(Ruth 4:21-22)