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

Have you ever looked at something in your life (a friendship, a dream, your faith), and felt like there was nothing left? Like all the good stuff dried up and what’s left are just bones. Maybe it’s a relationship that broke up. Maybe it’s the motivation to keep going to school or something you used to be passionate about. Maybe it’s the confidence in yourself that someone took away with their words.

God takes Ezekiel to the middle of a valley full of dry bones, a place that seems impossible to restore, and asks him a great question: “Can these bones be revived?” Notice that God does not make a statement but asks a question. Because with God, the question is never whether something can live again. The question is whether we are willing to believe that God can make something new, even in the driest, deadest place in our lives.

Leila Ortiz

Question to Ponder:

What part of your life feels like dry bones today, and what would happen if you told God the truth about how you feel?

Pray

God of life, you see the dry places in my heart that I try to hide. I ask you to meet me there, right where I am, and remind me that there is always hope when you are present. Amen.

Go

Renewed by the breath of God that lifts what has fallen and gives life to what seemed dead, go out into the world with courage and tenderness. Someone needs to hear today that hope has not ended.