Advent Day 16

Monday, December 16th

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” —John 10:10B (NIV)

The prophet Ezekiel is shown a vision of a valley of dry bones—the wake of devastation from war, famine, and disease that his people knew too well.

Make it stand out

God (rather surprisingly) asks him, “Can these bones live?” Ezekiel sees only death and devastation before him. Utter hopelessness. But, at God's breath, sinew, muscle, and movement appear before Ezekiel’s eyes as the people are made whole. Life is restored to them. God says, “Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you up from them” (Ezekiel 37:13, NIV). This is a vision of what God is in the business of doing. Restoration. It’s what Jesus came to begin at Christmas and see through to the end at Easter and beyond.

Advent sees this restoration as a long and slanting light. It meets our eyes, and suddenly we can see hope where there was none. We start to see life

where there was only decay. That is the work of this kind of hope. Like shoots of green in a crack in the concrete. Like a song calling through the dark. We see it all the time: life where there should be none. May we see these small miracles everywhere today.

O God, open my eyes to see and cherish the small miracles that abound each and every day. Amen