February 2019 Articles

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Spiritual Corner: Mundane to Magnificent

Spiritual Corner: Mundane to Magnificent Lately, I’ve been reading in the book of Genesis. It’s amazing to me how the book that we often think is simply dealing with creation, is so packed full of scriptural jewels that we can apply to our lives and learn from. I want to look specifically at Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7. It reads, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”. This verse is so powerful. First, look at what God created us from. He formed man from the DUST of the ground. I don’t know about you, but whenever I think of dust, I think of something dirty, something that gets all over my clothes and my shoes. I think of dust as that annoying substance that covers my car whenever I drive down our dirt road. I think about the irritating feeling whenever I get dust in my eyes whenever the wind is blowing. Basically, all of my associations with dust are not very good. It seems unimportant and useless. So why did God form us out of dust—this seemingly useless substance? Well, think about this. How often in your life have YOU felt unimportant? How often have you felt like you don’t matter? What about useless? Have you ever felt useless? I’ll let you know that I’ve felt both unimportant and useless many times in this life. Whenever you feel like that though, I need you to know that that is a LIE. The devil is trying to trick you into thinking that you are unimportant and useless, but what God proves to all of us by creating his most precious creation out of dust, is that He CAN and WILL use the things that seem unimportant and useless to create a masterpiece. In Genesis 1:27 it says that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them”. If we’re created in the one holy God’s image, then we have to know how treasured we are by Him. He chose to set us apart from the rest of His creation for a reason. So why didn’t he use gold or diamonds to form us? I think I would have rather been made out of that than dust, don’t you? But you see…it’s symbolic of what God can do. He can take the most mundane substance and turn it into something beautiful. He can take the most messed up person and use them for His glory. He has done it many times in the Bible (David, Paul, Peter, etc.) and He continues to do it daily. While we are special because we are created in God’s image, I believe He also created us from dust as a way to humble us. God, Himself, has so often taken the nature of a lowly servant and us being formed from dust solidifies the fact that He wants us, also, to take the form of a servant to Him and to others in this world (John 13:1-17). The role of a servant is not glamorous, just like dust is not typically beautiful, but the impact of a servant is greater than any high-paying career you can fathom. God calls us to be a servant in every aspect of our lives. We may be a servant at our jobs, literally serving others as a nurse or teacher or waiter. However, we are also called to be a servant in our simple, every day interactions. We should serve our friends, our enemies, our family, and strangers. Whenever we humble ourselves enough to where we serve others, we show the love of Christ to others and bring God glory and isn’t that what this life is all about? The last part of the verse talks about how, after God formed us from dust, He “breathed into [our] nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”. I think this part of the scripture is so beautiful. God formed us from this useless, mundane substance, but then He takes the time to breathe His breath into us. His breath is what literally gives us life. We are alive because of God. Once his breath was inside of us, we became a living soul. This means that from conception we have God inside of us. He has created us and He has marked us with His breath of life and with our soul. Is it any wonder why, until we truly find and know God, we feel like something is missing inside of us? It’s because God is a part of us—He is our reason for life, but until we know Him, we can’t fully understand ourselves, or the reason for our being. There are so many people in this world who are searching for something to fill the emptiness inside of them. They are searching for answers and peace. Most people end up trying to find this peace with the wrong types of things—whether it be drugs, alcohol, work, friends, relationships, hobbies, etc. Not all of those things are bad, but they will never fill that part of us that only God can fill. God is a part of us—His breath is what gives our very soul life, however, God will never force Himself upon us. He gives us free will to choose Him. Have you obeyed the Gospel and chosen Him? I encourage you to dive into your Bible and read and study and learn more about our magnificent Creator. Don’t take my words as absolute truth; look at the scriptures and see for yourself. I am simply one of God’s own who is attempting to share what I interpret as I dig into God’s holy book. Remember, your very being is due to the breath of life that God has breathed into you—have you filled that void inside with the Creator? With something else? I’m here to tell you, that God is the only one that can fill it and He genuinely wants to fill it (2nd Peter 3:9). And once you have obeyed the Gospel and become His child, if you let Him, He will use you to further His kingdom—and that’s the most magnificent thing anyone could ever imagine. --Dana Alexander