Dust

1 Samuel 2:8 – He lifts the weak out of the dust, and raises the poor from the dunghill; to give them a place among the great, to set them in seats of honour. (NEB)

It was a dry, windy day when I tilled my small vegetable garden plot. Upon completion of the tilling, I discovered that I was covered in dust. Even my eyeglass lenses were dust-covered. Looking at the world through dust-covered glasses, I was reminded of that old joke about a small child discovering dust under his bed and reporting to his mother that "someone was either coming or going."

The next morning during my regular prayer and Bible study time, I looked up some of the verses that refer to dust. Genesis 2:7 tells us God created mankind from dust. In Ecclesiastes 3:20, we learn that we are made of dust and will return to dust. Then, praying a Scripture, as I was recently taught to do, I completed my devotional time by reading aloud Hannah's prayer found in 1 Samuel 2:1-10. In today's Scripture, verse 8, we learn that God will lift us from the dust and give us new life.

While preparing to plant my garden, it struck me how readily we accept that God will bring new life to the seeds we plant in the dust and nourish with water. Shouldn't we then be reassured that when we return to dust, nourished with the living water of His Son, Jesus Christ, God will lift us up and bring us new life?

Sowing seeds reaffirmed what I already knew: there is a great deal to be learned about God in a garden.

Prayer: Thank You, Father, for all the places we find You, even in the dust of the earth. Help us to sow seeds of faith and to nourish them with living water that we might be lifted up and find new life. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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