Can These Bones Live Again?
Read: Ezekiel 37:1-14
“The Lord’s power overcame me, and while I was in the LORD’s spirit, he led me out and set me down in the middle of a certain valley. It was full of bones. He led me through them all around, and I saw that there were a great many of them on the valley floor, and they were very dry. He asked me, ‘Human One, can these bones live again?’ I said, ‘LORD God, only you know.’” – Ezekiel 37:1-3, CEB
Can these bones live again? That is the haunting question that begins this famous passage from Ezekiel 37. It’s also the subject of one of our beautiful sanctuary windows. God has a way of breathing life into the dead. In this vision, Ezekiel sees his nation, his very people, as nothing more than lifeless bones strewn across a valley. There is no life in this place. Why is this so? God’s breath is no longer within them. God’s spirit is absent.
Here is the good news. God isn’t afraid of dead spaces or dead things. For God, they become an opportunity to bring new life and a new day. So, God tells Ezekiel to prophesy, and he does. Speaking God’s word to the lifeless bones, they begin to shake and rattle. Joining together, they become bodies once more; bodies to be filled with God’s Spirit. What was once a dead nation becomes alive again because of God and God’s way.
Where has God brought new life to you and your life? I can think of times in my life where it seemed that there was no way, and yet God breathed new life and provided a way. I know it was God’s hand because it was far beyond anything that I could have imagined or done. In that death, God brought forth life, hope, and a future. I praise God for such experiences and celebrate hearing others share similar stories of God’s wonderful ways.
Can these bones live again? YES! And it’s all because we serve a God of Life.
Prayer: Living God, thank you for bringing life where there is none. Thank you for never giving up on us and seeing what blessings we may be as your spirit fills our lives. Amen
Rev. David Eardley
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