Dry Bones

You may recall our catchment catastrophe….
Here in Hawaii, many homes (like ours) get their water supply from rain run-off. It rains, gutters funnel the water to pipes which fill large metal tanks with plastic liners. Pumps then run the water through filters and eventually into our homes. We’ve lived here 12 years, and it rains ALL THE TIME. It didn’t occur to us to check the tank for the water level….until there was none and our tank was bone dry.

We replaced the old damaged liner, added a new tank cover, paid for a 5000 gallon delivery of water to half-fill our 10k gallon tank….and then waited for rain to fill the rest.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
For three and a half weeks, we had no rain.

The Old Testament reading this week is from Ezekiel and recalls the field of dry bones. Ezekiel 37:4,7: “Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD…. So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.”

To check the water level, we can either put a ladder against the side of the seven foot tall tank, climb up and peek under the cover, OR….we can check the sound. When we rap on the bottom of the tank, there is dullness. We progressively rap a little higher on the tank until we hear an echoing rattle….and that is where the water level is. Near the end of last week, I was ready to call for another load of water to be delivered but on Friday it rained from the east. And again Saturday and Saturday night from the south…and all day Sunday from the northwest, and the “rattle” on the side of the tank climbed progressively higher with each test.

I was overjoyed to hear the pounding rain on the roof, and the rattle as the pipes funneled water into the catchment tank, providing us with literally the “stuff of life,” but I fear that the world is heading into Ezekiel’s valley, and we can only hope and pray that God will call those four winds to give flesh to our dry bones in the same way the rain came and fleshed our tank.

37:9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”