Love. Cliche, not cliche...

Valentine's Day. Some people love it, some people hate it, some are indifferent. I don't really know where I fall. I can love it but I'm not a huge fan of the multi million dollar cliche Hallmark takes advantage of. I don't want to hate it simply because I don't like to hate anything. I guess I'm more indifferent than anything but am not set in my condition.

Valentine's Day falls in a very emotional time of year for me. Valentine's Day, 2005. That was my parents' last valentine's together. It was also 7 days before their 30th wedding anniversary and 5 days before my mom left this Earth. I watched my dad read his valentine to my mother. I don't remember if they knew I was around but it was like a movie. That very moment changed my world.

Love. When someone says that word, what's the first thing you think of? What immediately pops into your head? I guess it would depend on what's going on in your life at the time. The image of my father reading a card to my mother and whispering his adoration for her in her ear will forever remain what I see when someone asks me about love. Words that come to mind are sacrifice, commitment, tough, life-long, world, unconditional, growth, pain, value, team, best friends, vulnerable, no matter what. I can't imagine having that and losing it, let alone finding it again. If and when you find that again, is it the same? Is it more or less? Or just different?

Belief and Faith... what do they amount to?

This is so crazy awesome. The symbolism in this passage is astounding. Look at what God does with such a lack of hope, when it looks like there is NO WAY that any good can come from a situation, God puts beauty in it by breathing life into it. Nothing is in vain, God uses everything. He speaks to the author and works through him to bring life. He had to trust God and spoke with his mouth, truth and prophesy over the bones. 

Learning to trust, trust. Believe. Have faith that God will use me the way he intended when he brought me to life. Discovering the purpose I'm bound for... CRASHing into life, falling into peace... 

Ezekiel 37

Breath of Life

 ^1-2 God grabbed me. God's Spirit took me up and set me down in the middle of an open plain strewn with bones. He led me around and among them—a lot of bones! There were bones all over the plain—dry bones, bleached by the sun. ³ He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
    I said, "Master God, only you know that."
 ⁴ He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones: 'Dry bones, listen to the Message of God!'"
 ^5-6 God, the Master, told the dry bones, "Watch this: I'm bringing the breath of life to you and you'll come to life. I'll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You'll come alive and you'll realize that I am God!"
 ^7-8 I prophesied just as I'd been commanded. As I prophesied, there was a sound and, oh, rustling! The bones moved and came together, bone to bone. I kept watching. Sinews formed, then muscles on the bones, then skin stretched over them. But they had no breath in them.
 ⁹ He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man. Tell the breath, 'God, the Master, says, Come from the four winds. Come, breath. Breathe on these slain bodies. Breathe life!'"
 ¹⁰ So I prophesied, just as he commanded me. The breath entered them and they came alive! They stood up on their feet, a huge army.
 ¹¹ Then God said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Listen to what they're saying: 'Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, there's nothing left of us.'
 ^12-14 "Therefore, prophesy. Tell them, 'God, the Master, says: I'll dig up your graves and bring you out alive—O my people! Then I'll take you straight to the land of Israel. When I dig up graves and bring you out as my people, you'll realize that I am God. I'll breathe my life into you and you'll live. Then I'll lead you straight back to your land and you'll realize that I am God. I've said it and I'll do it. God's Decree.'"