Memorial Bones

Last week, my article was entitled Memorial Stones. This week, I am praying for memorial bones. Let me explain. My youngest son has had to have his collar bone repaired with a metal plate. His most recent surgery was to remove the plate. The bone healed nicely, but now he has the holes left by six metal screws.

As I was praying one night, I remembered what the x-rays looked like as his bone healed. It began as fuzzy white and as the bone continued to grow dense, the site of the break appeared brighter white until it matched the rest of the bone. I prayed to God, “If that doctor needs to hear about you, Jesus then fill in all those screw holes before his post-op appointment.” When the doctor is amazed by the unexplainable smooth, white bone that should have holes in it, that is when I will tell him about Jesus. Teamwork at its best!

Well, I found out my husband will need to take him to that appointment. My first thought was, “Who will tell the doctor about Jesus?”. So with my two youngest sons in the car, I told them about the prayer, the bone and what to tell the orthopedic surgeon when his jaw drops to the floor. I wasn’t expecting the reaction I got. They both snickered and said, “Mom, it doesn’t work that way. The bone must have time to heal. You pray a lot of prayers that are never answered.”

I snickered back! “Wait, you are privy to how God works? His ways are higher, His thoughts are higher and He can do whatever he wants.” Before launching into a full-blown sermon, I stopped and rethought my prayer. Perhaps it is my son who needs to learn more about the ways of Jesus. After all, Jesus healed so that people who witnessed his healing would believe.

The prophet Ezekiel was asked by God, “Can these bones live?” To which Ezekiel answered, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” Then Ezekiel prophesied, “Dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord.” And the bones that had been in a grave for a long time began to rattle until bones joined together to form whole skeletons, tendons and ligaments formed to keep them in place and flesh formed, breath entered them and they stood to their feet with life, a vast army! Ezekiel 37:1-10.

“Mom, God doesn’t work that way.” HA! His Word says otherwise. His Word says that filling a few screw holes is nothing to him when he can raise forgotten dry bones from a makeshift grave. This is God’s specialty. My prayer about my son’s bone has shifted to “God, I would love a memorial bone”. A collar bone that will speak to my children and grandchildren about how God works. A bone that we can tell our family about for generations to come. An x-ray that we can frame and have hung up as a testimony to the goodness of God to anyone who enters our home.

As Ezekiel highlighted in his response to God, He is Sovereign. Only God knows if he will exercise his supreme authority to completely restore my son’s bone in two weeks time. But I believe He can do it in a split second. The bone was formed at God’s command and the bone will continue to obey the Word of the Lord, even after it is in the grave.