Dry Bones Rattled

                                

If a picture could capture the before/after of "Michelle's Great Escape" - it would be this one I took yesterday on the Nature Trail, er, HeatStrokeRidge as it should be called in this Texas heat & humidity!

I have written often about my prayer for Brandon - in that his "dry bones would come alive" as in the song by Lauren Daigle. That his autism would end, his seizures would stop, his PANDAS would be no more. That he would simply be, him. I've prayed that prayer, believed that prayer, clung to the HOPEISM of it being an answered prayer one day.

Yet still my "Life with Autism, Seizures, & a side of PANDAS" is that left side of the picture. A well worn path. Barren, dry bones of relentless caregiving where each year is harder, each year brings me new health challenges with my son, not less. My valley getting more run down, not less. That's what "Michelle's Great Escape" was --- The realization that I needed to get out of that valley and experience the Mountain-view. If only for a while. Those two weeks were indeed a time of dry bones coming alive for me. No, nothing changed once back home - still no answered prayer in Brandon's trifecta of Autism, Seizures, PANDAS... But instead, renewed HOPEISM for me. For a moment, a few magical, amazing moments, my dry bones came alive. And Rattled. And if mine can, so can his. One day, his Friday will become a distant memory, His Saturday will become Sunday. He will become whole. And rattle. Listen to the song..... Click the below link to the song, turn up the volume, & feel the HOPEISM of the words... Listen to the song, Rattle:

Ezekiel 37:

The Valley of Dry Bones

The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.  He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.  He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!  This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.  I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.  I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’  Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.  I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”