Ezekiel 37:18-19. "And when your people say to you, 'Will you not show us what you mean by these? " Say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (which is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him; and I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand." 

God had told Ezekiel to take two sticks, writing Judah and its tribes on one, and Ephraim and its tribes on the other. Then Ezekiel was to join them together in his hand. When the people asked why he was doing this, Ezekiel was to answer as God says here. 

The tribes associated with Judah and Ephraim had been divided for a long time, but God was showing His people that He will eventually join them back together. The people may have wondered why God ever allowed the division in the first place. I know I wonder that when I see all of the disunity in our families, our country, and in the Church. But we do not understand God's plan or His timing, and we have to remember that all of us have free will.

God lets us separate ourselves from Him and from each other, even when He would prefer unity. He also lets us, with His encouragement, join back together when we come to the point of wanting to. Both the separation and the joining back together are exercises of our free will. Even though God says He will join the tribes together, the tribes we form in our disunity have to cooperate with Him in order to be rejoined, or the rejoining will not take. Of course God could force us to be together, but He never forces us to do anything, He loves us too much and respects our free will.

Yet God is always working in the background to bring us back together. His eternal plan takes into account all of our choices, all of our disunity, and deals with it over time to achieve His ultimate goal. This is why we should abandon ourselves to His Providence, trusting that nothing happens without His knowledge and permission, and take the messages of hope He gives us, like He gave through Ezekiel here, as consolations and promises that He will see completed.