For Dust You Are

“For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.”

I’m sitting here at my writing desk, looking at the shelf I dusted yesterday. I had really let it accumulate, and all my knick-knacks are looking brand new without their layered coats of gray dust.

Dust is insignificant unless it settles on furniture and possessions. Then, it becomes a significant nuisance. 

Because of this, I always cringe a little when the Bible calls me dust. It’s true, but my own insignificance pinches. It hearkens back to the curse when God announced it loudly and clearly: “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

In my panicky midnight moments, death looms large and I am fearful of the when, the how, the why, and the where. I know the who- we all will take our turn dusting. 

However, my Sunday School class has been studying the art of Christian meditation. It isn’t the Eastern emptying of the mind, but rather, the filling of the mind with the truth of God’s word. 

When death looms large, I remember what God said, and I meditate on it: “In the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.”

The truth is that death is just a shadow for the Christian. We don’t have to be afraid. God has made insignificant dust a vital part of His significant eternal plan.

“You will arise and have pity on Zion… for Your servants hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust.”

What is God’s city made of? Dusty people. The place Jesus was going to prepare? The building materials are dust and stones- us! Peter wrote, “You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

And once Jesus uses this dust as a part of His eternal house, it is no longer insignificant. It is no longer a nuisance. Instead, we have become “a people for His own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.”

A friend called us Saturday evening to ask if we’d heard about the attempted assination of former President Trump. We hadn’t heard, and we immediately looked it up. The footage is difficult to watch because one moment, all the dust there is alive and well, and the next moment, a bystander has been killed and a woman is screaming in terror. 

It’s a national reminder that we are dust. It brings to mind loss, grief, sorrow, fear, and uncertainty. But it also is a clarion call to fill our minds with God’s truth about dust: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”

For dust you are, but not insignificant if you have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.