By

the Spirit of the Lord, Ezekiel had an unforgettable vision. The

grisly scene of bones scattered across a valley might seem a

terrifying nightmare, with the evidence of death all around. But God

turned that valley of the shadow of death into a place of life. The

dry, scattered bones began rattling and joining together, and soon

they were covered by muscles and skin. And when the breath of life

entered the people’s remade bodies, they sprang to life again.

God

said this was a sign for his people, who thought they were dead,

dried up, cut off, and without hope in the world. They were exiled

from their land as punishment for generations of sinning against God.

But he promised to restore them to himself by putting his Spirit in

them and giving them new life.

God

accomplished this in surprising ways through his Son, Jesus Christ.

He came to pay for human sin by giving up his own life and then

rising from the dead. Then God’s Spirit came to breathe new life in

us, guiding us to know the Lord and trust in him for forgiveness and

salvation. As Paul put it, though we were “without hope and without

God in the world,” he “made us alive with Christ even when we

were dead” in our “transgressions and sins” (Ephesians 2:1,

4-5, 12). And one day, when Jesus returns, we will also rise from our

graves to live with him! (See 1 Thessalonians 4-5; Revelation

21-22.)