I watched that Potter work his clay
He took a piece of miry earth
That had no value
That had no worth
He dug it from a barren field
And beneath his fingers
I watched it yield
It began a lump upon his wheel
Then he began to press and feel
And out of nothing but a lifeless form
A lovely vessel
Soon was born
And there before my eyes that Day
He made a wonder from
A lump of clay
Ingimar DeRidder
YOU'RE DIRT !
Have you ever felt that way? Watch
what God can do with dirt!.
Have you ever felt that way? Watch what God can do with dirt!.
"For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." Psalm 103:14 God knows it. The Psalmist knows it. We are made of dust. What does that mean? Perhaps if we had a sample of the dust of Eden and a microscope we could get a better picture of what this means. Better than any microscope however, we have the Bible. It helps us see what things are.
1. Dust is seen as innumerable. It is not precious. "Now, O LORD God, let thy promise unto David my father be established: for thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude." 2Chron. 1:9 There is a lot of it. Dust is a common thing.
2. Dust is infinitesimally small. "Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind…" Ps 18:42.
3. Dust is inanimate. "What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth?" Ps. 30:9 It just lays there, helpless. It cannot move itself.
4. Dust speaks of ignobility. "Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Caldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate." Isa. 47:1
5. Dust is insignificant. "Behold the nations are as a drop of the bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance." Isa. 40:15 Dust may influence modern scales in high tech computer chips, but not potato chips. The housewife is not worried about the dust on the grocer's balance. It is insignificant.
Have you ever felt like dirt? Not precious,
infinitesimally small, powerless, low down, insignificant? That is really
what we are. But watch what God can do with dirt. "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." Genesis 2:7 To
admit we are dirt is to "humble" ourselves. The word
humble is derived from the word humus which is, well, dirt.
Lord, we know that our frame is dust (dirt), but we are your dust. Breathe on us, and in us, and show the world who you are, and what you can do with dirt.