Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely. (Ezekiel 37:11)
Dry bones!
Been there.
Done that.
…In relationships, health, diet, finances, emotions, spirit, exercise, intellect...
feeling stressed, flat, overworked, grieving, stagnant, underappreciated, depressed, disheartened, stuck.
My speech even sounds dry and scattered: I’m so broken up about that. I have to drag myself out of bed. I’m falling apart. I came unglued.
That valley of bones? In the story, it is a nation.
But in my heart, that’s me.
Each year at the vigil, we hear again in the story from Ezekiel 37:1-14 how God revivifies that valley of dry bones. He reshapes the skeletons, he rebuilds the connective tissue, and then he gives them flesh again.
It is usually an entertaining moment in the vigil - people creatively demonstrate that process…. Sometimes there’s puppets, sometimes there are children lying on the floor, sometimes we sing about “Dem bones, dem bones” and connect one bone to another.
BUT, they are still dead.
Been there. Done that too.
Try and try and try as I might, I cannot by my own strength make these bones live.
Then comes the part that lifts my soul and fills my spirit:
Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
Can you see that? Feel that? A mighty wind moving across the dead. A sudden gasp of air. And …life.
Another word for that? Resurrection.
I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people… I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live… says the LORD.
Your thoughts are always welcome. You can comment below.
Dry bones!
Been there.
Done that.
…In relationships, health, diet, finances, emotions, spirit, exercise, intellect...
feeling stressed, flat, overworked, grieving, stagnant, underappreciated, depressed, disheartened, stuck.
My speech even sounds dry and scattered: I’m so broken up about that. I have to drag myself out of bed. I’m falling apart. I came unglued.
That valley of bones? In the story, it is a nation.
But in my heart, that’s me.
Each year at the vigil, we hear again in the story from Ezekiel 37:1-14 how God revivifies that valley of dry bones. He reshapes the skeletons, he rebuilds the connective tissue, and then he gives them flesh again.
It is usually an entertaining moment in the vigil - people creatively demonstrate that process…. Sometimes there’s puppets, sometimes there are children lying on the floor, sometimes we sing about “Dem bones, dem bones” and connect one bone to another.
BUT, they are still dead.
Been there. Done that too.
Try and try and try as I might, I cannot by my own strength make these bones live.
Then comes the part that lifts my soul and fills my spirit:
Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
Can you see that? Feel that? A mighty wind moving across the dead. A sudden gasp of air. And …life.
Another word for that? Resurrection.
I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people… I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live… says the LORD.
Your thoughts are always welcome. You can comment below.