Can these bones live?

Pentecost Sunday is the day we remember the Holy Spirit coming on the early church as they waited to receive what Jesus promised would come. As they prayed together God’s Spirit descended on the group. They spilled out into the streets, speaking in languages they had never learned. That day they were empowered to be the missional people of God.  

God’s Spirit does more than empower us. In Ezekiel 37 God showed the prophet a valley of old dry bones. It was the scene of an old battleground, and God asked “Can these bones live?” Ezekiel was living in a time of exile, a time of hopelessness. In a time of no hope, God told Ezekiel to prophesy life to the dry bones. When the bones came together and were covered with flesh, God told Ezekiel to prophesy breath to the lifeless, breathless bodies. They became a vast army, filled with God’s Spirit, God’s breath of life. 

At times we feel hopeless like Ezekiel looking at an impossible situation. Sometimes we feel dead inside like a pile of old bones ourselves. The question of “Can these bones live?” seems ridiculous. What hope is available? Ezekiel’s answer was “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” God doesn’t just know the answer to our questions. He IS the live-giver, the only one who can resurrect an army. 

When the Holy Spirit came like a mighty rushing wind on the day of Pentecost, God’s very breath came into his children. Today that same breath can come into us, can come into our dead-end situations. We don’t have to live in a hole where we fell. We don’t have to pretend to be alive. The prophet speaks, “Come to life!” And, we can live!