Jessamyn Rains

“Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.’” (Ezekiel 37:4-5)

Over and over, throughout scripture, we see that God shows up when all seems lost. The hungry are fed; the dead are raised; a remnant is preserved when it seems that the whole world has forsaken the true God. 

God’s question to the prophet Ezekiel–“Son of man, can these bones live?” –might be posed to each of us: Do we believe that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, in the face of whatever loss, grief, or devastation that comes into our lives? Ezekiel’s answer–“Oh Lord God, You know” –was perspicacious: in that natural, dead bones cannot live again; but this is God asking. 

No matter how hard things get, if we believe in Christ, we should never despair; God is always breathing new life into dead things. 

In the natural world,  autumn’s dead leaves become the fertile soil for spring’s new life; in the same way, God uses our heartaches, losses, sufferings, sorrows, and even our failures as fertile ground for our next season’s fruitfulness. 

Nothing is ever wasted.