Guest Post by Author Cassie Downs
But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. —Luke 15:32 (CSB)
We were minding our business, walking and talking when we saw it.
My friend, Faith, and her family were visiting our home when she and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a long walk around the farm. We didn’t make it far though when her toddler, Zoe, decided she too was one of the big girls and jumped on the adventure train.
Making our rounds across the farm, enjoying our chat when we topped the hill and it appeared.
A body.
A real-life, seemingly lifeless, body.
Talk about a surprise. We were only a couple of yards from it when we spotted him. Terrified, we quickly called for Zoe to get behind us. Our minds and our conversation raced about where this man came from. Was he breathing? How will we call for help when our phones are sitting at home? Why is he on my property and is he violent? Should we be afraid?
We were frozen, chatting back and forth and assessing the situation. Should we make a run for it? Should we see if he’s alive? And then we saw him move. At that point, I’m not sure if him moving was good. I think it made us more uneasy about the situation. And just about the time we were going to make a run for it… We heard the roar of laughter — my husband, Dustin, was sitting behind a tree across from the dead man and he couldn’t contain his laughter any longer. He and the dead man, Faith’s husband, laughed till they nearly cried.
It’s fine, go ahead and laugh. It’s funny—now.
As I was thinking about this story, my mind took me to a scene from the movie, The Sixth Sense, where the young Cole Sear tells his mother, “I see dead people”.
I get it bro. I do too.
Ezekiel also saw dead people. A lot of dead people. Ezekiel 37 tells the story. I’ll give you the rundown, though.
The Lord sat Ezekiel down in the middle of a valley full of dry bones, lifeless people. But the Lord asks Ezekiel a crazy question, He asks, “Ezekiel, can these dry bones live again?” Ezekiel answers with “only you know, Lord.” The word tells us that the Lord asked Ezekiel to prophesy over the bones of dead men and scripture records that the bones came back together, flesh covered the bodies, and they breathed again.
This is us. We live in a valley of dry bones, we too see dead people everywhere. We meet them at the grocery store. They are our neighbors. We work with them. We eat with them. Attend school with them. Some of us even live with them. They aren’t heart-stopped-beating dead. Or dead in a creepy horror film or zombie apocalypse kind of way. But in a spiritually dead, lost in sin (Romans 3:23), and without Jesus kind of way. We pass by them day after day, but I wonder— what are we doing about it? What should we do about it?
God tells Ezekiel to prophesy. He says to speak life into the bones. Tell the bones who I say they are— alive and breathing. And they lived. It sounds crazy, it is. But that’s the crazy God we serve. A God who has the power to bring dead things back to life. A God who has given us the power to prophesy the same way Ezekiel did. We have the power to speak life, to tell people who they are in Christ and what God says about them. Are we using the power He’s given us? Or bypass them. Are we too busy telling them what to do rather than who and whose they are?
We see dead people all around and truthfully, it’d be much easier to run away. Dead people can be scary to face. But as Christ’s followers, we are called to compassion for the lost. Dead people can not enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5) and that should break our hearts. If it doesn’t, you need to check your pulse.
Do you see dead people? What are you going to do about it?
Excerpt from Unrivaled, a 60-day devotional
Cassie Downs is a lover of Jesus and her family. She is the author of two books, Chasing Jesus and Unrivaled, both 60-day devotionals. Cassie is also the founder of Everyday Jesus Ministry, a homeschool mom, and a furniture flipper. She resides in Stockton, MO, with her high school sweetheart and husband, Dustin, and their three teenagers.
Instagram @downs.partyof5