Journey to the Cross 
Pause
Take a breath. Open your senses so they can feel the light that surrounds you.
Take a breath… and enjoy the life around you.
Sometimes it is difficult to see the sun over the clouds. But the sun is always there.
Sometimes it is difficult to feel the presence of the Triune God, but God is always there.
Listen
I prophesied just as I was commanded. There was a great noise as I was prophesying, then a great quaking, and the bones came together, bone by bone. When I looked, suddenly there were sinews on them. The flesh appeared, and then they were covered over with skin. But there was still no breath in them.
He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, human one! Say to the breath, The Lord God proclaims: Come from the four winds, breath! Breathe into these dead bodies and let them live.”
I prophesied just as he commanded me. When the breath entered them, they came to life and stood on their feet, an extraordinarily large company.
Ezekiel 37:7-10
Think
I remember going to a museum in Chicago and seeing an anatomy exhibit. What I saw amazed me. The human body is an amazing thing. The connections between bones, muscles, flesh, and organs seem to be flawless. When you recognize God as the creator of all these things, you feel awe-stricken. What an incredible gift has been given to us.
Ezekiel has seen the bones and is commanded to prophesy to them. Suddenly, he sees sinews on the bones. Then flesh appears, and then skin covers the flesh. But the passage quickly clarifies, “but there was still no breath in them.”
Breath. The divine ruah (Hebrew for breath) is the gift that gives us God’s Spirit of life. We can see all the wonders that our bodies attest to… but without God’s breath, without God’s Spirit, thought, and purpose, the body is just a combination of materials. God’s breath is what makes us human, what gives us the ability to stand and to move. God’s breath is what gives us true life.
Marissa Galván-Valle
Pray
God, thank you for the breath you instill in me. You give me the spirit I need to move, to be courageous, and to live in you. You give me the thoughts so that I can discern your will. And you give me purpose, to stand and to breath and to give witness to the wonders of creation. Thanks you for giving me true life. Amen.
Go
Breathe in!
Breathe in the life and hope that only God provides.
Breathe in so that you can go and give this hope of life to others, in everything you do and everything you say.
