This reflection by Simeon Zahl originally appeared in Daily Grace: The Mockingbird Devotional, Vol. 2, now available in paperback. You can find the new versions at our store and on Amazon.

The hand of the LORD came upon me…and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones […]

So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” (Ez 37:1, 7-9)

To spend any length of time in this world is to come up against the limits of our power. Who has not tried to make some corner of the world a better place and been met with intransigent resistance? Who has not tried to make someone they love happy and failed? Who has not poured the best of themselves into a project or dream only for it to crumble to dust in their hands?

God, however, is not like us. God is not limited by intractable situations, or stymied by hostility or indifference. God created the universe from nothing, and there is nothing in all of creation that can constrain his plans or resist his purposes.

But we must not think of God’s power simply as a matter of brute force. God’s power also has a particular character—a warp and a weft, a weight and a direction. Today’s passage from Ezekiel gives us a glimpse of how this particular God chooses to make use of his omnipotence. It shows us that God’s most characteristic act, the most perfect expression of his infinite divine power, is the act of resurrection. This is a God who draws on the power that called the stars into existence and uses it to give life to the dead.

If you want to encounter the awesome power of God, look to the piles of bones around you. Look to the place in your life that has no breath in it—the intractable situation, the hope that died, the dust in your hands. And then have the courage of faith to invoke God’s resurrection power. Call upon the Holy Spirit, whose nature is to give life, to be poured out over the circumstances of your life: Come breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

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featured image via DW.

COMMENTS

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