SUBMERGEഉദാഹരണം

More than Dust

“Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7)

“And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.” (Hebrews 11:32–34)

We humans come from humble beginnings, don’t we? ‘Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground.’ (Gen. 2:7) We began as dust. Do you know what dust is? Dust is a mixture of sloughed-off skin cells, hair, clothing fibers, bacteria, dust mites, and bits of dead bugs - in short, dust is dead stuff, the leftovers and castoffs of life. Do you ever feel dusty? Do you feel like a pile of dead stuff, like a castoff, the stuff everyone wants to forget and leave behind? What can dust possibly be good for? How could dust ever be useful or appreciated, or loved? That’s where we come from; that’s who we are. We are dust.

Genesis 2 tells us we are more than just dust. In the beginning, God scooped up a pile of dust and gently breathed on it, blew His breath into this pile of nothingness, and humanity came into existence. Think about that for a second - Humanity, God’s crowning achievement, the height of God’s creative genius, was formed from a pile of death’s leftovers and a small gust of God’s grace-filled breath! We are dust and breath! God breathes into a pile of dust, and heroes like Abraham, Moses and Elijah, Sarah, Esther, and Mary, rise out of the dustiness and into the pages of scripture. As we witness in Hebrews 11, just like Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, just like David and Samuel and the prophets, God is ready to turn our weakness into strength every moment of every day. And it is in this way that God is glorified in us, for out of our dustiness, God’s glory shines!

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Reflection:

Do you ever feel like dust?

Do you believe God can breathe life into your dustiness?

Ask God to allow His glory to shine through your dustiness today!

Dr. Steve Johnson
SNU Professor of Theology