“Mortal,
can these bones live?” is a question in a dream sequence so it would be a
mistake to imagine a valley of bones literally putting on flesh and blood even though
we certainly hope our dry bones will one day be resurrected in whatever valley
they eventually come to rest. But for the first readers of these words the
literal interpretation was that their figurative dry bones held captive in the
valley of Babylon would one day put on the sinews and flesh and blood that would finally breathe
freedom in the land of promise. In a real sense “by the waters of Babylon we sat and wept”
(Psalm 137) would experience “the ransomed of Lord will return unto Zion with
singing…” (Isaiah 35:10) That may have been the dream sequence that inspired James
Weldon Johnson (1871 – 1938) to pen “Dem Dry Bones” anticipating the day when “I
have a dream” (Dr. Martin Luther King) was spoken in the place of power and “Let
Freedom Ring” animated the dry bones of an oppressed people to demand equality in
the “home of the brave and the land of the free.”
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