Coming Back Alive
Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’” — Ezekiel 37:12–14 (NIV)
As I’m writing to you, it is the night before a new President’s inauguration, normally a time of excitement in our country, but as we all know, these times have been anything but “normal.”
Today, on the last day of the outgoing administration, a grim milestone was reached as well — 400,000 lives lost to COVID-19.
Last week, an attempted coup at our Capitol — words I cannot believe I am typing. . .
We are so weary. . . and we cannot rest because we are under threat of violence from a few of our fellow citizens again tomorrow. Everything is shaky and uncertain, and it is exhausting.
Amid this chaos, though, I have been thinking of the story of Ezekiel’s prophecy of the Valley of the Dry Bones — and — never without a song in my heart — the Lauren Daigle song about it.
In Ezekiel 37, God gives Ezekiel a vision of a valley of dry bones. Through His power, God literally resurrects them, representing the resurrection of the remnant of Israel.
At the Word of the Lord, they go from a heap of dead nothingness to “an exceedingly great army,” filled with breath.
The Lauren Daigle song, called Come Alive (Dry Bones), always speaks to my heart so — and I’ve had it on repeat this evening:
Through the eyes of men, it seems there’s so much we have lost
As we look down the road where all the prodigals have walked
One by one, the enemy has whispered lies
And led them off as slaves
But we know that You are God, Yours is the victory
We know there is more to come
That we may not yet see
So with the faith You’ve given us
We’ll step into the valley unafraid, yeah
As we call out to dry bones, come alive, come alive
We call out to dead hearts, come alive, come alive
Up out of the ashes, let us see an army rise
We call out to dry bones, come alive
God of endless mercy, God of unrelenting love
Rescue every daughter, bring us back the wayward son
And by Your spirit, breathe upon them, show the world that You alone can save
You alone can save
As we call out to dry bones, come alive, come alive
We call out to dead hearts, come alive, come alive
Up out of the ashes, let us see an army rise
We call out to dry bones, come alive
So breathe, oh, breath of God
Now breathe, oh, breath of God
Breathe, oh, breath of God, now breathe
As we call out to dry bones, come alive, come alive
We call out to dead hearts, come alive, come alive
Up out of the ashes, let us see an army rise
We call out to dry bones, come alive.
Come Alive (Dry Bones), Lauren Daigle.
We have never needed the healing, life-giving hand of God more than we do right now.
With those horrifying and heartbreaking COVID-19 deaths come the knowledge that, so far, it is not slowing down. Our healthcare system is overtaxed. People are not being vaccinated as quickly as they might have been.
All is not well.
After years of misinformation and division and strife, there are substantial numbers of our own citizens calling for aggression towards our government in the face of the inauguration tomorrow. State capitols as well as the national Capitol are surrounded by the military. It’s surreal.
We are waiting to see what will happen.
We are so weary.
As we look around us, the need is so great to call out to the Maker and of the stars and of the ocean and of all we see and all we cannot see — and of us as well, and cry out again for dry bones to come alive.
We need to see dry bones dancing and sad faces laughing and souls filled with the love of Jesus.
This is true of our nation — and it’s true when we suffer individually as well.
Living with constant suffering can just wear on a person’s soul. It’s almost impossible to someone who hasn’t lived it — but, if you have, you know. You find yourself just. . . bone tired.
So weary.
In these times, when we least feel able, these are when we most need to cry out for our dry bones to come alive, for our God to come in and breathe life and hold us and bring the warmth only He can.
We call out for dry bones, “Come Alive.”
Only He can do it. He will.
We can trust him — all of us.
Grace and Blessings.
