Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones

I was asked to read one of the passages at the Cathedral's sunrise service on Easter Sunday. It was from Ezekiel 27, where God brings newness of life to all the people of Israel. The valley of dry bones became a vast multitude of humans with sinews, and skin and breath. To me Ezekiel was prophesying about how the Israelites' faith had become so impotent that they may as well just be dried up old bones in the dessert somewhere. But God promises to breathe new life into them; and sent His son to pay for their sins and restore their faith. Only God can do that. No mortal can do it; they can only try to steer others in that direction.
The more I inspect this mystery of faith and the more I ponder the places I've been, the things I've seen and the things I've done...I realize that I have been retracing my steps, moving back along the paths from which I came, picking up the bread crumbs that God left for me along the way. They helped me recall the way I was as a child: the way I thought, believed, behaved back in those endless days of youth. I longed for that innocence again, and eventually found it was there within me all along. After peeling away the onion layers of sin and disappointment, heartbreak and loss, the pain associated with all those things sloughed off too. I have become a not-so-new creature, pretty banged up from life's heavy blows, but walking in a newness of life, alongside my first love, my Lord and my God.