“I can’t breathe.”
“I can’t breathe.”
The Sunday just after George Floyd’s death – with the hashtag #Icantbreathe flooding social media – we sat watching our priest celebrate Pentecost on YouTube.
We listened to the story of The Valley of Dry Bones. And I started shaking my head.
It felt so weird to be listening to the Old Testament speak about breath when all I’m hearing and seeing and feeling is…
“I can’t breathe.”
So my heart is thumping now, and I don’t know what else to do with this word but share it so here it goes.
“He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of Man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones; I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy son of man and say to it. This is what the Sovereign Lord says, ‘Come breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied as he commanded me and breath entered them, they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army.“
Ezekiel 37:1-11
Do you see it? Can you hear it?
We all witnessed George Floyd taking his last breath.
And God is answering with a word on breath.
What will you do with yours? What will I do with mine?
Ezekiel is looking at a valley full of bones; disgraced, unburied bones that had been dead so long they’re dry. He had to have been scared, overwhelmed, anxious – just like me watching the news these days.
But God pushes Ezekiel asking, “Can these bones live?”
Ezekiel doesn’t say no or turn away. Ezekiel turns to God. “Only you can know.”
His answer, his posture, give me direction.
“O God, you alone know.”
And as soon as Ezekiel answers, God invites him into the working of a miracle. God gives Ezekiel the words, Ezekiel does the obedient work “and breath entered them, they came to life, and stood up on their feet – a vast army.”
The crazy miracle in that story, the crazy miracle we need NOW is restoration. When God restores, he brings life, he brings things together.
We need to be patient and persistent because what we need on top of restoration is revival. And revival happens in stages; look back at the stages in Ezekiel’s story. There is work to be done.
Pray our work, our hands, our hearts, our words are inspired by the breath of God.
Breathe oh Breath of God.
Breath of God breathe life into our stone, cold hearts.
Where we need to pivot, to change, to stop, to listen, to say sorry, to say I forgive you, to learn, to love – breathe that life into our hearts through your Word.
I pray we as a people are restored through you into a vast army, side by side.
how the light gets in 