[The Lord] asked me, “Human one, can these bones live again?”

I said, “Lord God, only you know.”  – Ezekiel 37:3

We’ve been playing a lot of Super Mario Bros. in my house lately.  It takes me back to my childhood, with endless hours of collecting coins and power ups and jumping on top of enemies heads.  It’s a nice little escape from the headlines that continue to eat away at my soul.  There’s one character in the Mario games that comes back to life and continues to pursue you even after you’ve jumped on it: Dry Bones. It’s been awhile since my theology has been inspired by a video game, but I couldn’t help but make the connection between this simple henchman and the vivid resurrection imagery of Ezekiel 37.  So I drew a very stupid comic that makes me laugh more than it should, but that’s just because there’s a middle school boy trapped in this middle aged man.

Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones army took place during the Babylonian Exile.  Taken away from their homeland and from the temple, Israel faced a crisis of identity and of faith.  Would they simply become lost in the surrounding Babylonian culture, never to restore their own kingdom?  Had Yahweh been defeated by a more powerful god?  Could God’s promises be trusted?  The people lamented to the Lord, “‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished. We are completely finished’ (37:11).  Referring to ones bones is to talk of one’s deepest self.  The people were at the end of their rope.

A key word in Ezekiel’s vision is ruach in Hebrew, which can mean both breath, wind, and spirit.  Ezekiel plays on all three meanings of the word to drive home the point of God’s power and presence with Israel.  Even as the bones have reassembled, as muscle and flesh have recovered them to human form, they are still vacant without breath.  So Ezekiel prophecies to the breath, calling on the four winds to breathe life and spirit into these dead bodies.  It is a powerful reminder that God’s Spirit can truly breathe new life into any circumstance.

That is a message I need to hear today, as my post box is flooded with party pamphlets, as advertisements flood my media with presidential candidates, and headlines remind me how divided we are as a nation.  I am not naive to think an election will magically unite our country, nor that the coming of January 1, 2021 will bring an enchanted ending to the turmoil of this year.  That’s not how life works.

When we feel dried up, God alone knows if these bones can live again.  And God is faithful.