Do we believe?

Sunday school today was based on Ezekiel 37:1-14. It's the Valley of Dry Bones passage. If you haven't read it in a while, click on that link, and give it a read. I'll wait.

As Marv was reading it today, I was struck by the image of hope that it creates. In the beginning of the passage, when God is showing Ezekiel the dry bones, he asks Ezekiel, "Can these bones live?" I love his answer, which roughly translates as, "Only you know, God." Then, God reassembles the bones, and makes them come alive. Life out of death.

I think that sometimes we are in Ezekiel's position. We face a situation, and we don't even know if there is hope or not. We can't even state our faith in God enough to affirm that he can make a difference. And I would follow that statement with an assumption -- if we don't believe that there is hope, then we will act as if there is not.

God isn't just building bodies in this vision; he's building hope. He's building in Ezekiel the belief that through God all things -- even the impossible things -- can happen.

We depend on ourselves, and we reach a situation in which we cannot -- under our own power -- make a difference. The weight of the world is on our shoulders, and we don't even have the faith that anything can change.

God is building hope.

God is building the realization that HE can make a difference.

It is through God's power that the bones are reassembled and through his breath that they are brought to life.

Ezekiel goes from not even having the faith to make a statement of trust to witnessing the impossible, made possible through God.

Do we believe it? Do we truly believe that God can make a difference? Do we believe it enough to let go of our burdens and give them to God?

Image: I took the "big camera" to the park today and played, watching for signs of spring.