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The Land of Dry Bones
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Scripture Reading: "The LORD . . . set me in the middle of a valley . . . I saw a great many
bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry . . . Then he said to me,
"Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ' Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! . . . I
will put breath in you, and you will come to life." (Ezekiel 37)
I have always found it fascinating to see life-sized models of dinosaurs. It amazes me that scientists and artists can combine imagination and skill to reconstruct something out of a few dead dry bones. Recently, Hollywood’s creativity has taken things to an even higher level with almost real-life movies like "Jurassic Park" or "Dinosaurs."
Do you ever feel spiritually and emotionally dried up and brittle like the very dry bones on display in a museum? Ever get those days when there doesn't seem to be much life in you? Have you ever looked ahead and thought there is no hope of things ever changing? It’s a fearful and foreign place. Far from the Master’s hand, we were never meant to be in the land of dried and parched bones.
In Ezekiel’s day, the people were all too familiar with this spiritually depressed place. They were captives in a strange land and didn't feel any hope of getting out of it. It was their fault they were there. They had turned their backs on God and blindly followed the pattern of life lived by the godless cultures around them. They had failed to listen to God's words. They slid into selfish, sinful living that violated the grace and glory of Jehovah who had set up a covenant of saving love with them. They had no clue on how to get out. And left to ourselves, neither do we.
But God does. God didn’t abandon them. He isn’t baffled. Nor does he abandon us.
Because he is the God he is, he promises he’ll bring life back to those who are "dried up" spiritually and emotionally. Through Word and sacrament he is able to breathe his Spirit into frosty hearts. He takes what is seemingly dead . . . like dry bones . . . and gives it life.
In baptism he makes us alive. In his Word he calls for us. Sometimes whispering. Other times shouting. But we don’t always answer. Sometimes he coaxes us to look for the cause for the dry season we are experiencing. Other times, through the fingers of circumstance and situation, he tries to get us to look up. God has even been known to do a little dismantling in order to get our attention. Not just because he loves us. But because he loves us dearly. And he will do whatever it takes to rescue his children.
Isn’t that the reason he lived among us? The Son took a common name - Jesus - and made it holy. Jesus donned the costliest of robes: a human body. He became a friend of sinners and the brother of the poor. He touched our sorrows and paid for sins. He entered a tomb, came out, and pledged that we would do the same for you and me.
One day he will do something even more amazing than any Hollywood artist and learned scientist. One day, dry dead bones will hear a sound the likes of what has never been heard before. We will look up and he will reach down and take us home.
The final declaration of the Bible (Revelation 22:20) puts it this way. “I am on my way. I’ll be there soon!” Good news for dry bones wouldn’t you say?
— Jerry Kastens, Minister of Discipleship
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