Listen

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.”

He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, Dry bones, hear the Lord’s word! The Lord God proclaims to these bones: I am about to put breath in you, and you will live again. I will put sinews on you, place flesh on you, and cover you with skin. When I put breath in you, and you come to life, you will know that I am the Lord.”

Ezekiel 37:1-6

Think

My brother played lacrosse in high school. He once compared the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel to a particular lacrosse field he played a game on. It was a hot day. The field was dry and dusty. Players clanked hard, brittle lacrosse sticks together. During the game a player from the opposing team called my brother’s coach a racial slur. My brother was shocked. He couldn’t believe what he’d heard.

The valley of dry bones is a fitting image for the scene on the lacrosse field, where a young boy used such hateful language. Much like the valley in Ezekiel, life and love were gone from that lacrosse field.

But God called Ezekiel and calls you to bring good news about love and life to all those you meet, even when all hope seems lost.

My brother remembered what he had learned in church: God calls us to prophesy, to speak out. And on that lacrosse field, my brother decided to respond.

Have you had an experience when you felt called to share God’s love in a scary or sad situation? How might God be calling you to share love today?

Katie Cashwell

Pray

Holy God, I breathe in your call, and I breathe out your call to others. Be with me this day. Amen.

Go

“Spirit, spirit of gentleness,
Blow through the wilderness, calling and free.
Spirit, spirit of restlessness,
Stir me from placidness, Wind, wind on the sea.”

James K. Manley, "Spirit,” 1978