When God Touches What's Dead

This is a picture of the sun rising over the Dead Sea.  With it containing over 33% salt, there is nothing that can live there.  It receives water but nothing flows out of it.  That is why it is, dead.  It is like our lives when we have everything flow toward us and nothing flows out into the lives of others.  We become addicted to receiving rather than giving.  And the more we receive the more we "feel" we need.  And life outside of ourselves does not exist.

Along side the Dead Sea is an oasis by the name of En Gedi.  It is one of the places David hid from Saul when he was chasing him.  There is an interesting prophecy about En Gedi.  While there is life in the midst of the oasis from a fresh water spring, there is nothing that gives life to En Gedi from the sea.  Yet the prophecy of Ezekiel 47 says:

Then he led me back to the bank of the river. ⁷ When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. ⁸ He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. ⁹ Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. ¹⁰ Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. ¹¹ But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. ¹² Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” 

This river of water is flowing from the Temple of God in Jerusalem in the future.  And when life comes from God, it transforms things that are dead and makes them alive.   So En Gedi, in the future, will be a sea-side fishing village.  Its hard to envision right now, but God says it will be that way.  There will be salty bogs nearby but where the water flowing from God goes, there will be life.

God does the same today.  When dead things are touched by God, there is life.  We may find it hard to envision people or situations different than what they are right now, but "all things are possible with God."  A friend commented on Facebook when I posted the the above picture:  Beautiful and ironic.
It is a beautiful picture that shows the glory of God.  It is ironic because my friend knows that the sea is lifeless.  But picture the future when the glory is displayed over a life-supporting sea.  And healing will come to things and people around it because of the transforming power of the Lord.