Dry Bones

This past Thursday, I arrived early to Waco, Texas for a continuing education event. I called Suzanna, my daughter and suggested we visit the Waco Mammoth Site which is an active archeological dig where the largest collection of Columbian Mammoths have been found. The bones date from two primary eras: 68,000 years ago, and about 15,000 years ago. Baylor University faculty and students have been directing the dig since 1978. And the bones are actually bones, not fossilized, but preserved because of the high clay content of the soil.

Walking through the small site, looking at the enormous bones, I couldn't help but think about the passage from Ezekiel 37, where he sees a vision of a valley full of dry bones. 

God speaks to him and says “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”

Ultimately the bones in stages receive flesh and sinews, then skin, and finally the breath of life. As Suzanna and walked around we saw the artists representation of a live Columbian Mammoth and it would have been an impressive animal.

This Lent has been "dry" feeling to me. There are things that feel lifeless and dead. And yet, underlying the dry feeling is a sense of anticipation.

When I asked myself where that sense of anticipation comes from I realized it is from a long experience in my life of God's provision, and abundant life. There are times when it comes as a flood, and it seems that that sense of God's power and presence will last forever.  But it is not meant to last in this life. The wisdom of the scriptures and of the Church through the ages is dryness and wilderness,   rains and fertile fields are gifts of God in their due season.
 
So while things are dry right now, I know life is coming.