Thursday, May 20, 2021

Out of the Dust

 

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground.  He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.  Genesis 2: 7

You’ve heard (perhaps many times) the words of Adam and Eve’s punishment after their sin in the garden of Eden:

“…in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”  Genesis 3:19 KJV

This was, of course, God speaking the awful words of consequence following humankind’s disobedience.  And thus the die was cast, that we all follow the same path, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. 

We hear those words at funerals, and there is nothing so sobering and thought-provoking, primarily because it brings our own human fragility into full view.  The statistic on mortality has always been one birth = one death, separated by a few years. 

There is nothing quite so disturbing and humbling as seeing a friend or family member with whom you spent time, joy, laughter, toil, and tears, lying lifeless, unmoving in the casket before you, devoid of spirit; just a shell of dust.  The hushed whispers of gathered mourners adds to the surreal otherworldliness of such moments.  Frankly, it makes the hair on the back of one’s neck stand up, rigid.  Or it should! 

But the problem with such scenes isn’t the hushed whispers, or the weak attempts to frame a maudlin, creepish moment with funny stories of better times.  Our dilemma facing the funeral bier is that we spend too much thought on the dust, and not enough on what’s missing from the dust.

When God created humans, from dust into man’s body, then bone to woman’s body, the only things visible were flesh, bone and blood, re-formed dust!  We tend to trust our senses, and so we recognize each other first by the physicality of our being.  But notice Scripture declares that Adam did not become a man, nor Eve a woman, until God breathed the breath of life into them.  It is the gift of God that transforms dust into being.  And without that we are but piles of dust waiting for the vaccuum cleaner…unknowing, unmoving, unthinking, and un-being.

Considering that unmitigated fact, isn’t it rather odd that we invest so much in developing and maintaining our physical, or dustly bodies, and so little in the growth of spirit?  Many families spend a thousand dollars or more a month on health insurance, and (if they give at all) find it hard to let go of a $10-bill to the offering plate.  We work out an hour a day with Nordic Track, but pray only when trouble hits.  We spend time in intense psychotherapy with the counselor, but can’t find ten minutes a day with the Wonderful Counselor.

For You Today

When I find my priorities a little out of order I call a time-out.  I then call a family meeting of me-myself-and-I to the table and do a little taking stock of where I went off the track. 

The meeting always ends the same…repentance instead of excuses, and prayer for God’s strength to get this dusty pilgrim back on track with the Spirit God breathed into me.

Is it time for your family reunion of dust and Spirit?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!   


[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

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