Summer Weikel walks around the block without her equipment, watching the evening sky for three stars. She records anyway because obedience matters more to her than preparation. As Yom Kippur approaches, the Day of Atonement becomes personal. It leads back to October the 2nd, when sobriety became one part of what Summer calls an awakening.
The date carries emotion, uncertainty, and conviction. Summer may hesitate over where an observance falls on the calendar, but she is certain about what happened to her: God called her to set herself apart, offered repentance and a new life, and gave her a new purpose.
October the 2nd became Summer's personal Day of Atonement
October the 2nd began a sober year, but Summer describes more than abstaining from drinking. When God met her, she says, surrender changed what she wanted. Drinking lost its hold because she wanted to drink of the Holy Spirit and live in surrender to God.
At the time of her awakening, she did not understand Leviticus or Yom Kippur. The connection emerged only after she had been sober for a few months. Upstairs at the lake house, in what the family calls Mama Cat's room, she researched Yom Kippur and discovered that October the 2nd had been the Day of Atonement.
That discovery gave the date its weight. She may be uncertain about whether the anniversary falls "tomorrow," but she is certain about what the date means. Summer does not consider God's choice of the day accidental. Repentance, sobriety, and purpose came together on a date she understood only afterward.
Summer does not consider God's choice of the day accidental.
The Day of Atonement inside the Holy of Holies
In Leviticus, holiness is never casual. Aaron, the high priest, enters the Holy of Holies once a year. The ark fixes Summer's attention on the sacred place: manna, the Ten Commandments on two tablets, Aaron's staff, and two winged creatures. Hebrews 9 or 10 helps her connect those details to God's dwelling place.
Approach follows a strict order. The high priest washes, puts on linen clothing, prepares incense, and offers blood during the ritual. The repeated warning, "you will die," makes the boundary clear. Aaron's two sons entered casually and died. Holiness cannot be treated as ordinary.
Then come two goats. One is given to the Lord. The people's sins are confessed over the scapegoat before it is sent into the wilderness. Forgiveness here is more than vague goodwill. The ritual involves cleansing, confession, blood, and the removal of sin. Its severity makes the meaning of atonement hard to dismiss.
Its severity makes the meaning of atonement hard to dismiss.
From the torn curtain to the secret place
Summer connects each part to Jesus: the sacrifice, the perfect lamb, the scapegoat, the high priest, and the curtain. When Jesus dies, the temple curtain tears from top to bottom. To Summer, that means no more lambs are required and no priest must stand between people and God. Through Jesus, they can approach, repent, and ask forgiveness.
Open access, however, does not mean casual attention. Summer enters what she calls the secret place, without another person or technology, for focused time with the Word. She may bring a journal, pen, devotion, or music, though she prefers silence. Her phone stays in another room on airplane mode so she can give Scripture her full attention.
Summer says finding a rhythm takes about 30 to 45 minutes, and revelations often begin around 30 minutes. She records connections between Leviticus and Hebrews as "treasures" in her journals. Sometimes her attention deepens until eight hours seem to disappear. Access may be open, but nearness still requires deliberate time.
Access may be open, but nearness still requires deliberate time.
The same urgency shapes fasting, which places the flesh under the spirit, and repentance, which cannot wait until 40 or some imagined tomorrow. The invitation is for today. Like the spontaneous recording made before three stars appeared, the response begins without delay: enter the secret place, ask God to reveal the heart, and receive the new life opened through the curtain.
