Written By: Sarah Busch
Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14
From the bulletin each Sunday, the image of a green tree in the middle of dry ground with the single word "Restore" has stared up at me. That one tree. How deep do you think the roots are to find water that allows it to bare leaves? How long has the ground been parched around the tree? Has it been a summer, a lifetime? Did the seed for this tree come from someone planting it, or was it carried by the wind from somewhere else? I wonder if there were other trees that attempted to live in this now dried up landscape. Is there any hope for dry ground? Â
   I have thought a lot about what it means "to restore". Until those bulletins and the image of the tree, I didn't give much thought to the word "restore" except for computer data, a house, or the finish on an antique. Restore means to return or to bring back to what was once complete, original or beautiful. But now I think about what do I have in my life that was once complete or beautiful and now is brittle or dry? What does God want to restore in me and through me? Do I have something that is too dry, too far gone to be restored? Am I willing to do what is required for restoration?
I know it may not be the first book of the bible that comes to mind regarding restoration, but Ezekiel 37 has the story of dry bones. Ezekiel is in the middle of a valley and full of very dry bones. God asks Ezekiel if the bones can live, and Ezekiel says back to God that only God knows that. So God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the dry bones, and when Ezekiel does, God puts the dry bones together and adds flesh and tendons and breathes life into them! Then, the bones stand up on their feet as a vast army. A vast army is now in the valley! God says that when our bones are dry, our hope is gone, and we believe we are cut off, God can bring us back. God says he will put his spirit in Israel and they will live and settle in their own land. Wow, Ezekiel obeyed God's instructions and then God breathed on the bones and they were brought back to life - an army for Israel. God can breathe life, he can restore all of my dried up skeletons. Skeletons of dreams or expectations; dried up relationships; hopeless circumstances; my dead ends of money, health, career. Â
Even when I am in a valley full of my own dry bones, God is there. God is willing to restore all of my dry bones if I will obey him - if I will surrender my will, my pride, my time, my resources, my past. Easier said than done! God can and will breath on my dry ground, my dry bones, so that I can have the restoration that he wants me to experience. It may mean my roots have to go deeper, or I have to wait for rain, or go through a valley. I'm not sure. Until then, I wait for God's leading, confident he can and will restore anything that is broken and dry if only I will surrender and ask him for restoration. Â
Prayer: God break up the dry ground beneath my feet. Show me where my pride and my own ambitions have hindered your work in my life. Lord you have raised up dry bones before, would you do it again in our own lives? We thank you that you are the giver of life and the restorer of my soul. Do a mighty work in us!
Follow up: What has God been teaching you in 2023? Did our last sermon series impact your life? Email your story to courtney.mize@fhbc.org