The Breath of God
“Our sin is atoned for through Jesus’ sacrifice, by the surrendering of the breath in His lungs for you and for me.”
“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!”
(Psalm 150:6 ESV)
It’s Spring in the South, and everything is bursting forth with life. It seemed to happen overnight. Wasn’t it just yesterday the trees stood bare, leafless, and brown? Today they are suddenly vibrant. Flowers are blooming everywhere, coloring the landscape once more. My little girl plucks them as gifts for me every chance she gets, bringing me the sweetest little yellow, purple, and white weed flowers. I wish I could save every single one of them.
As I look around me, I notice that there are some trees stalling to return. There are patches of them here and there, still leafless and bare amid such teeming life. Some just take longer than others.
Don’t we know how they feel? Aren’t we sometimes surrounded by color and life, stalling to catch up, struggling in our revival? Wondering when the dead inside will come back to life? It is easy to forget in the winter what God will do in the spring.
Here is the beauty of Easter, making ALL things new, giving us everlasting life.
I imagine the disciples on the evening of Jesus’ crucifixion. I imagine his mother, her heart broken with sorrow. It couldn’t have been the outcome they expected for the Messiah, even though He told them what must occur for salvation to come to the world. I imagine them struggling to understand, struggling to catch their breath, not fully realizing that revival and resurrection were within reach- days away, already accomplished. Hope likely seemed stalled.
Maybe you have areas of your life you feel haven’t been touched by His reviving hand. Maybe restoration feels late in its coming. Maybe you feel surrounded by beauty and life, but winter still lingers.
He isn’t late.
I love Ezekiel 36:16-37:14. The Israelites are living in captivity in Babylon. They had been unfaithful to the Lord, and they suffered the consequences of being enslaved and taken away from their homeland. But God speaks through Ezekiel that He will again restore them: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26 ESV). Isn’t this beautiful?
Do you notice who does the work here? The Lord. And He can do this for you.
Ezekiel then receives a vision from the Lord of a valley full of dry bones, which represents all of Israel. Dead in sin. Lifeless by rebellion. God asks Ezekiel to “prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 37:4-6 ESV). Ezekiel obeys, and what happens next is miraculous. The bones come together one by one and piece by piece, revived by the breath of God. They stand as an army in the valley, restored and renewed.
Who does the work here? The Lord. And He can do this for you. He already has.
This prophesy is meant for the exiled Israelites, but doesn’t it reveal the character of our God? Doesn’t it display His ability to resurrect the death inside of us through the power of Jesus Christ? Doesn’t it resemble how he calls us out of our own exile of sin to give us a home with Him? Even those places that seem hopeless and lost. Even the places that struggle to be revived can be made new in Him. Our sin is atoned for through Jesus’ sacrifice. He willingly surrendered the breath in His lungs in order to breathe new life into yours and mine.
Spring reminds me of Christ’s resurrection. It feels like a visual reminder of the new life He so graciously gives me, not just once in my salvation, but over and over and over. What seemed lost the day before, minutes before, is now revived- a living hope. I hope you know today that He is the Redeemer. And all of those dead places can breathe again by the very breath of God. God breathed life into my heart. He took my heart of stone and replaced it with one that longs to love Him. For the rest of my days, I want to return my life in gratitude to Him, to return the breath in my lungs in worship to the only One worthy of praise.