Oh, Them Bones!

DNA to Rule on British Monarchy!  

This sounds like something out of the Inquirer or pop press that runs with sensational stories.  People  =pay to read the ridiculous to assure themselves that they are sane!  But this one has some possibility to it.  It has certainly caught the Brits' attention and by surprise.  Read an excerpt News.com.au:  

ARCHAEOLOGISTS are anxiously waiting to see if a skeleton dug up from a hole in a car park in the English city of Leicester is the remains of the much-maligned King Richard III.  More than five centuries after he was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field by the armies of Henry Tudor, who later became King Henry VII, scientists believe they are close to making an identification. Michael Ibsen, 55, a 17th generation nephew of King Richard III, will have his DNA tested against the remains found in the humblest of settings but which could just prove to be the burial place of the last English monarch to fall in battle. Ibsen, who was born in Canada and moved to London 27 years ago where he works as a carpenter, said: "The only line that they were able to follow through to current times was the line that leads to my mother.''   

Apparently, the skeletal remains show a person with severe curvature of the spine, the telltale mark of Richard III--Shakespeare's hunchback king.

 So what exactly is the big deal?  It certainly is a bone of contention for the existing relative, isn't it?  And should it be the remains of the King, does he deserve a state burial at Westminster?  To be sure, the King's legacy is not a good one--including murder of children.  Then again, what British King has been the ideal?  The word on British streets is that the Queen does not want him buried in Westminster.  

We are definitely in the wait and see mode.  Perhaps this is one giant step for archeology and DNA and we will have to figure out what it means after that.  Most of the time, we hear how DNA clears the guilty.  In this case, maybe it has raised up the bones of the guilty!  

There is a lot to be said how we become fascinated with archeological digs--and for good reason to make sense out of history, its timeline, as it transports us back in time.  Then again, people of faith may look for the ultimate statement from the Spirit as in the Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37):  
 
The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ²He led me all round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. ³He said to me, ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ I answered, ‘O Lord God, you know.’ ⁴Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath^* to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath^* in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.’