He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "Sovereign LORD, you alone know." – Ezekiel 37:3

Today's Scripture Reading (July 9, 2020): Ezekiel 37

Ancient Chinese Philosopher Lao-Tze, the "Old-Master," taught that we should "Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." But the process all starts with our thoughts. And sometimes it seems that our thought life is overlooked. Being careful with the things that we are thinking is not considered to be all that important. After all, I frequently hear the argument being made that what we think isn't all that important unless it becomes part of our actions. Talk is just talk; there is nothing substantial to it. But the Old-Master insists that our destiny is set by our thoughts.

And that is why negative thinking is so damaging. One negative thought leads to another, which leads to negative words and actions and eventually shapes who we are as people. That generous person who lives out life graciously and the miser who hordes all that they can get, both began their journey with a random, uncontrolled, thought.

The Spirit takes Ezekiel out into the valley and shows him a bunch of dry bones. These are not the bodies of people who have recently died, with their flesh still attached and who look like maybe they are sleeping and can get up at any moment and walk away. They were not even the decaying bodies of something we might see in a zombie movie. They were dry bones. All the connecting tissue had disappeared. There was nothing left but the bones, and it would have taken an expert even to know what species were represented by the bones. And in front of these bones, God asks Ezekiel, can these bones live?

Ezekiel's response is the right one. Only God knows whether these bones can live. Or maybe better, only an act of God can bring life to the bones lying on the valley floor in front of Ezekiel. Only God has the power over life and death. But the problem that I see has very little to do with the bones that Ezekiel sees in the valley. I live in the valley of dry bones. I live among a people who are walking around, pretending that they are alive, but in actuality, they belong in the valley with Ezekiel's bones. Their thoughts and their words have long ago caused real life to stop within them. They are negative shells representing something that was once alive. And God's question remains: "Can these bones live?"

The answer hasn't changed. Only God can bring life to our bones. Only he could bring life in the valley of dry bones, and only he can undo the years of random negative thoughts that have driven the life out of our bodies. Life is still possible, but only with God.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 38