Come A L I V E

The leaves are beginning to turn color. They are drying up, dying and falling to the ground. Usually at this time each year, I feel a piece of my soul dying with each leaf that hits the ground.  I'm usually singing "Wake Me Up When September Ends" as the pain of change takes place. You see, I love the summer. I feel most alive in the summer. I am more creative and more rested. I have more time to spend with my family and friends as well as out in God's beautiful nature. September, however, means vacation is over. September means, the sun and the flowers are on their way out. Everything goes from alive and green to dry and brown, and then (in Oregon anyway) eventually, wet and gray.

Yet, this September something feels different to me. As things slowly begin to die, I find myself thinking over the word ALIVE. "Hmm," I think to myself, "that's not a normal word for September".
Nevertheless, I write the word down above September in my prayer journal.

As I stare at the word in my journal, the song "Come Alive (Dry Bones)" by Lauren Daigle, keeps playing on repeat in my head. I take it as a cue to search for the phrase in my bible app, and it leads me to Ezekiel 37. I don't recall ever actually having read this passage of the bible before now. If you haven't read it before either, I encourage you do so! To summarize;
The prophet Ezekiel has a vision in which God brings him to a valley filled with vastly old and dry bones and God speaks to him:

3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 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.’”

If you go on to finish the passage, you will find out that Ezekiel cries out to the dry bones to come alive, and before his eyes and entire army of skeletons turn into flesh. Can you imagine? What an amazing vision.

I no longer feel like a part of me is dying as I head into the fall.
I feel ALIVE.
I am excited for what God will do in the months to come.
Every day is an opportunity to see God at work.
This will be a year of dry bones coming to life.
Starting with me..

Grace & Peace,