What God Can Do With Dust
In the beginning, God created.
God pulled light from dark,
sea from sky
and then…
….and then God scooped up the dust of the ground
and she said - “imagine what I can do with this…”
So God breathed into the dust.
God exhaled, we inhaled,
and all of it was good.
These humans, literally these dirt creatures,
we walked and we talked.
But we did more than that…
we danced and we sang.
It wasn’t just good,
it was beautiful.
Together, they explored all the beauty
that God had created,
and they grew.
They learned, they adventured,
they grew and grew,
when they had grown just tall enough,
they reached for the fruit from that tree.
That one tree.
God had to watch out
for the growth of these dusty creatures -
they didn’t yet know the fragile nature
of the beauty they beheld.
So they ate.
And the enormity of it all came to them.
Not only could they see the beauty,
but they became aware of everything else,
and most terrifying - they saw themselves.
They realized, there was so much they could do.
They covered themselves with leaves,
they tried to hide what they had discovered -
not ashamed of who they were,
but terrified of who they could be.
The Creator called,
and came,
and had seen it all.
The creator knew we had grown enough to know,
so she began to teach us:
To the one who’s name was “Life,”
- she was to experience so much,
a lot of it would be hard, God knew,
for this is the one who could create life, too.
And to the one who was named
for the earth from which he came -
- the vastness, wildness, unpredictable-ness
of this earth?
He will wrestle it, work it, care for it,
and in return it would feed and care for him too.
And in the end, God assured them,
there was no great distance to fall,
for in the end, it was from that dust they came
that they would return.
This dusty in-between, this life,
this was what was good.
So it was time to leave the garden,
for there was so much that dust had yet to do.
They grew, they knew, and so they journeyed.
Farther and farther East.
And all God had taught them? They found it to be true.
Together they created family,
and with the earth they created food,
….but…then again they reached,
they learned,
there was nothing they couldn’t do.
We had learned we could create life,
now we learned, we could take it away.
Brother came against brother,
and it was from the ground that his blood cried out.
That same dust - once laden with so much potential -
now soggy with the blood of all that dust could do.
So again God came, and talked, and taught.
And God marked the brother Cain with a sign,
a sign that would protect him wherever he went,
not because he deserved protection,
but because these creatures were still learning -
the fragility and power of dust.
Generations came -
we built a boat,
endured a flood,
built a tower, only to be scattered, like dust.
Eventually God chose two -
- two creatures to help the rest
remember what we’re made of.
To them, God made promises.
Their descendants would be like the stars in the sky.
Their offspring would be like the dust of the earth.
And everything God told them, they found it to be true.
Generations came,
their children’s children scattered,
brothers fought,
angels visited,
dreams revealed impossible things.
Until one day, when a man was tending his sheep.
He saw a bush engulfed in flames,
it instructed him to take off his shoes,
for the dirt he was standing on, was holy ground.
This bush called Moses to remind the Pharaoh
- just what the people were made of.
They were not made for violence,
but for beauty.
So Aaron was to lift his staff, strike the ground,
and watch the dust of the earth rise up
to remind the powerful.
For they had forgotten
just all that God could do with dust.
Generations came,
wilderness was journeyed,
promised land was found,
everything God had promised turned out to be true.
Judges were selected. Prophets directed.
And eventually, eventually
the people begged for a king.
A woman named Hannah went to the temple,
and she sang:
“You are the God who raises up the poor from the dust,
who lifts the needy from the ashes
who makes them sit with princes…”
Her child, Samuel, would grow
to call and guide the first kings,
for his mother knew what God could do with the dust.
Kings came, and kings went,
and all the while prophets spoke.
They warned against doing the things nations do.
Isaiah preached:
“Shake yourself from the dust, O captive
Jerusalem.”
The dust and ashes,
they had become a sign of mourning,
a sign of waiting,
as the people begged for the One
God promised them would come.
And then, the whole world learned it was true.
Born in a manger,
baptized in the desert,
tempted in the wilderness.
This is one who knew a lot about the dust.
So much so,
the people weren’t sure it was him.
Is this the one we had awaited?
This one, who is as dusty as us?
So like he had in the very beginning
he scooped up the dust of the ground.
This time he spit into it,
rubbed it in the blind man’s eyes,
reminded us all of what is possible,
healed us all, that we too might see.
But not everyone did. Not everyone could.
So he told his followers not to worry about these.
To those who wanted to hurt you,
the places that wouldn’t welcome you,
shake off the dust, and let them be.
Don’t fight those who revile you,
pray for those who persecute you,
not because they don’t need to be fought,
but because you are made of dust.
There is too much power in you
to let it loose to hatred.
There’s nothing the dust can’t do.
So when he found the woman encircled,
her punishers with lifted stones,
he defended her by bending low,
even closer to the dirt.
He put his hands in the dust,
wrote something in its surface,
reminded them of their substance,
and they dropped their stones,
showing us, how we can all be made free.
And when they all thought it was over,
they learned again God’s promises were true.
What came from the dust,
shall be returned to the dust,
but now
that would never be the end.
Jesus returned to teach us, show us,
for we - these dusty creatures -
are still learning, just what God can do with our dust.
So when you look around at your life,
when you find your eyes focusing
on the dusty corners you have neglected,
if you notice yourself perseverating
on the dirt that seems to cover
who you know yourself to be,
don’t forget, that you are made of dust.
For we can trust that what God teaches us is true -
- over and over again, she scoops us up,
tells us we must be careful with this dusty existence,
careful, not because of our fragility,
but because with us,
there is nothing God cannot do.
