Dry Bones

By Melissa Woods

When my 2 1/2 year old only daughter fell off our new bunk bed this past summer, I don’t know who was more upset, she or I. After we both had quite a cry, an emergency room visit confirmed our suspicions:  fractured humorous. Not so funny. Her arm swelled and the pain was evident. Treatment was followed up by surgery, cast and sling. Today, she has healed with an almost free range of movement.

Currently, we are immersed in our study of the human body, cooperation, and this past week a study of the skeletal system. How exciting to discover that our bones, unlike our hair and nails, are living, growing members of our body. They have feeling and life in them. Life giving blood is manufactured in the very marrow within our bones. During our Family Devotion today we looked further in the Bible to see what God has to say about our Bones.

From The New International Dictionary of the Bible, “bone” is described as the following, “In the living body, bones form the strong framework, and the connotation is one of strength.  “Bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (Gen 2:23) was spoken in a literal sense of Eve; but almost the same words (29:4), spoken by Laban to Jacob, are figurative and show only kinship. Strong chastening is thought of as a bone-breaking experience (Ps 51:8), and the terrible writhing on the cross of Calvary literally threw bones out of joint (22:14). Dry bones form a picture of hopeless death (Ezek 37:1-12).  The Passover lamb, without a broken bone (Exod 12:46), was a type of the Lamb of God (John 19:36).”

How about that. Reading Ezekiel 37, we find how God breathed life into the valley of dry bones, and raised up an army with tendon and flesh from seeming hopelessly dead, dusty, discards. The bones were representative of the people of Israel. God’s people.  The breath of life God breathes reminds me of how He breathed life into the first dust formed man, Adam, in Genesis. Are you discouraged in your life trek? Do you feel a bit dry and used up? Do you need some life? Let the life giving breath of God respire anew to your dry bones and raise you up. Breathe in the life that only God can bring. This is exciting news to me. My daughter’s fractured arm is healed, and she loves to show people that she “has a new bone.” We saw it for ourselves on the x-rays. I know God can do the same for us in our Spiritual lives. He showed Ezekiel in a vision how he could pull together a living, strong army from a valley of dead dry bones.

Singing the Spiritual “Dry Bones” was suggested as a possible activity by our curriculum this past week. We used it for copy work. Think how the American slaves were encouraged by the same passage in Ezekiel 37 in their own captivity. Singing this song to hope for life from their dry bone experience, we recognize and draw strength in God’s provision.