Call Me “Dusty.”
“For He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.” — Psalm 103:14, ESV
Have you ever felt like dust? It is not so bad. From dust we came and to dust we return.
We are well-organized dust. Isn’t it amazing what dust can become?
But dust has limitations and God knows. Be patient with yourself, God is.
Just call me “Dusty.”
Why?
Let me see if I can come up with an acronym to answer the question.
It sometimes helps clear the cobwebs from my dusty thinking.
Dust is Dirty.
The moment I wrote those words, I realized how wrong they sounded. Dust just seems dirty because it is loose and often out of place.
We use the verb form to indicate that it is a noble activity to rid ourselves of it.
We dust the furniture to remove the dust, but try as we will, there is duct everywhere.
Dust is Useless.
Again, I find myself being wrong.
However, even Google thinks dust is useless. I entered the search criteria, “benefits of dust” and it was automatically corrected in my engine to “benefits of dusting.”
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It took some work, but the University of Leeds website confirmed my second thoughts:
“Dust particles in the atmosphere are important agents in ice formation. In the absence of dust, water in clouds can remain in liquid form even though temperatures may be well below freezing.” Aug 17, 2023
Even useless particles can be useful.
Dust is Solid.
Specifically, dust is made of very fine particles of solid matter, including dead skin.
I am dust and to dust I return is a biological reality. There is something of me that was made from stuff that was not alive and will return to not being alive and be recycled in other life forms and non-life forms.
Dust Is Temporary.
Nothing stays in the same form forever. Nothing is any one form is permanent. Human beings are passing through. Nor can we remain in one place and put down roots. The wind comes and blows us away.
The old rock band from my youth, Kansas, was right. We are dust in the wind.
But they were also wrong because …
of this one phrase:
All We Are
It is not all we are.
We are more.
We are becoming more.
We have potential to be more.
I do not want to overdo this or any other analogy. You see where this is and where it is going. We are not perfect. We are flawed. We are corrupted. We are weak.
Yet, we are not only those things. Because we are feeble, God is patient and kind with us and willing to give us room to grow.
Can’t we, at least, give that same gift to ourselves and to others?
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Just for fun, here is the global map of atmospheric dust:
