Dry Bones

                      "Valley of the Dry Bones" c.1935          Ben-Zion Weinman  (1897-1987)

When we hear the story of the Valley of the Dry Bones in Ezekiel, it isn’t long before we are trying to remember the words to the Sunday School song: “The hip bone’s connected to the thigh bone….”  And, “ZAP!” any interest in deciphering the meaning of the passage goes out the window. Yet the message is an important one.


So, set aside neck bones and shoulder bones for a moment (you’re humming it, aren’t you?)  and listen to the conversation God has with the prophet, Ezekiel.

“Tell these bones that I, the Lord, will put sinews on them and breathe life into them, so that they will come back to life and know that I am the Lord.”

And so, Ezekiel does and the bones come back to life. Wow!  We’ve all seen bones, bleached by the sun: fragile, dried out, inert. God is speaking, in metaphor, to those whose faith has dried up.  

How dried out is your faith? Your love of God? Your participation in the community of faith? Lent is the time when we consider the quality of our spiritual health and God's answer is always the same: “Return to me. Enter my fold. Hear my words and I will give you life and vitality – live so rich that you cannot imagine it.”  Such is God’s call to us. Return. Repent. Re-engage. God wants to put sinews on our bones, and life into our hearts.

Such is the Love of God in Christ Jesus.