Patti Burris

Ezekiel 37:1-10

37 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ² He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.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 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.’”

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. 

There have been two specific times when I felt like I was living in the valley of dry bones. The first time, I was 15 and had been placed in foster care. I was in foster care for 3 years and I felt like a zombie during this time. I went through the motions of life, but I was lifeless. I  was living in a group home when I was 17 with five other girls, we were all made to take a psychological test. You know, the one with the ink blotches. When my test report came back, I was allowed to read it. It said that I had schizoid tendencies. No one explained what this meant. I was left believing that I was irreversibly flawed. I thought I was schizophrenic. Many decades later, I now know that being schizoid simply means that you withdraw from social situations. You don’t seek social interaction. You have very few close friends, not trusting anyone to be close enough to hurt you. Understanding this now, I can admit that this was me. I withdrew from the world. I had a couple of close friends, but I became someone else. I would not let any one in. I had become dry bones.

The second time I lived in the valley of dry bones was after my divorce in 2000. I went through the motions of life, but inside I felt like I was dying. I had kids to take care of and this kept me going, but I longed to pull the covers up over my head and just sleep until the pain went away. This lasted a few years, until I found my heavenly Father and He breathed life back into me.

Ezekiel 37:14

“I will put my spirit in you and you will live.”

God brought me back to life. There are still days when I am tired and feel like I can’t go on, but I AM ALIVE! I have life, because God breathed life into me. His spirit is in me and I live. We all go through times when we feel like we are living in the valley of dry bones. If you are there now and you are crying out, God hears you and He WILL breathe life back into you. Let Him know what is on your heart and let Him comfort you.

If you don’t know how to reach out to God, but you want to live again, then contact me. I am here for you, my friend. You don’t have to live in the valley of dry bones any longer. Choose life!