Monday 30 April 2012

Z is for Zion



 



Zion can mean different things to different people. The three pictures above all represent Zion. In many ways the images are connected. They suggest the idea that Zion is place of strength, safety and beauty for all.

Iron like Lion in Zion.(stength) Bob Marley
Bob Marley is probably the most famous Rastafarian, a movement established in the 1930's with the aim of repatriating its members, to their ancestral  home lands of Ethiopia. A place known to them as Zion.

The City of Zion. (safety) The Matrix triology
The Matrix mixes religious ideas on too many levels to document in one blog, but just look at the name. "Matrix" appears 5 times in the Old Testament and means womb, fitting the films idea of humans being grown in artificial wombs. The humans in the film defend their city of Zion.

Zion National Park. (beauty) Utah
Never been to Zion National Park, but the pictures look amazing, certainly looks beautiful to me.

Having said all this, my thoughts are not so much about specific places, but more about a state of mind. It is possible to make where ever you are, a Zion like place. It is about how you behave and treat others. I suppose these thoughts are because of my underlying faith and association with a church that teaches such. I do think however, it is not hard for anyone to agree that the world would be a better place, if we all strived to be like the people described below.

"And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them."  (Moses 7.18)

Imagine if we all strived to be of one heart and one mind, if we all dwelt in righteousness and if we elevated the poor among us? I think we would be pretty close to creating a little bit of Zion on earth, a place of strength, safety and beauty??



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