Can These Bones Live?

“The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’

I said, ‘Sovereign Lord, you alone know.’

Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!’ This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

-Ezekiel 37:1-6

Perhaps you are asking God this question these days, as you look your life, at organizations and communities you’ve been part of, relationships you’ve cared for, institutions that you’ve relied on… God, can these bones live? They are looking so dry, so brittle, broken and lifeless. This passage in Ezekiel invites us to imagine that, yes, there might yet be hope - yes, God is able even where healing and new life seem impossible.

You’re invited to take a few minutes in God’s loving presence to mull over the poem below. What challenges you or encourages you? Who does it remind you to pray for or reach out to? Where is the silence of this moment leading you?

Let This Silence Become a Bridge

By Drew Jackson (@d.jacksonpoetics)

I wake in the morning and sink down into the quiet Center.

Before the news and the heartbreak.

Before the world becomes all fire and brimstone.

Tell me, is this salvation?

I could stay here, alone and away.

I could place my life in the company of the undisturbed.

But if I do, I will surely lose You.

Friend of Sorrows. Acquaintance of Grief.

Let this silence, then, become a bridge.

Let me walk it to where Love is.

At the edges. Amidst the rubble.

Trudging among the bones

Where the prophets call to the four winds

And a Voice cries out saying Live! Live!

Let this silence become a forgotten thing

If it does not lead me to the hill

Outside the camp.