Tip of My Iceberg

Over six months ago, our neighbor’s home was struck by lightning. Our family was sitting at our kitchen table, and my son-in-law saw it happen through the window. He jumped up from the table, raced outside, and knocked on the door to alert our friends to what had happened. The flames hadn’t made it inside the house, but we could see the roof burning.

It’s taken this long for all the permits to be processed and for the relevant authorities to grant permission for the rebuild. We’ve been watching the slow but methodical reconstruction of the roof, fascinated by the huge crane on our rather narrow street.

As time has passed, the house is slowly becoming “filled out”, as if it’s growing a new skin. The roof now has a solid covering over the house, lacking only the shingles to complete it. The interior needs a major overhaul; the drywall was stripped down to the studs because of smoke damage. The bottom line is the house is moving forward with its rejuvenation.

There are times when we all go through periods of being refurbished in mind, body, and soul. When we’ve been hit with hard times or are feeling somewhat undone or a bit shattered, we may be impressed with the need to be fixed up. Like HGTV for people.

Ezekiel was a priest and prophet taken into captivity with the Israelites to Babylon in the sixth century BC. God commissioned him to prophesy to the rebellious Jews who had ignored God. The Lord also prepared him for the rejection he’d experience from them. He was called to show these people their mistakes, focusing a lot on judgment to come.

Despite the focus on judgment, Ezekiel brought a message of hope to the Israelites. He had a vision of a valley of dry bones, a picture of the devastation that the Israelites would experience because they were disobeying God. God told him to prophesy to the bones he saw spread across the land before him.

“This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 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.” Ezekiel 37:5-6.

Ezekiel obeyed the Lord, and when he did, he watched the bones come together, tendons and flesh appeared on them, and skin covered them. God told him to command breath to enter them, which the Lord provided. A huge army stood before the prophet. This was God’s promise that Israel would be restored as a nation, would return to their land, as well as the promise of the true resurrection of the Promised Messiah. God would flesh out His army His way.

As much as our neighbor’s house is being fleshed out and returned to its former glory, we each have a need to be restored to who God created us to be. Made in His image, God has a better plan and purpose for our lives that we could ever imagine. Not simple, definitely not easy, but rich with what matters to each of us.

None of us is a finished product, yet. No matter how well we do, how much we accomplish, there will always be room for growth. We may not have lost our roof or have personal plaster falling down around us, but we can improve.

It’s a change, but change can be wonderful.