God of All of Us

The Bible tells us that when God made Adam, He first formed the dust into the shape of the man and then breathed the Spirit into him to give him being. 

When He created Eve, He put Adam into a deep sleep, pulled one of his ribs, formed dust around it and breathed spirit into that dust, then woke the man up to see his enlivened bride. 

David confesses in the psalms that he was knit together in his mother's womb.

The rest of us just happened by accident. 

I'm kidding.

When we ask how it is that God created us, we often go back to the Adam story - we are dust and to dust we will return. He formed us, then breathed into us His life and now, here we are, paying our taxes in a foreign country until we can go back Home. 

But the biblical witness tells us plainly that scraping together some dust, even forming it, even breathing into it is not the only way to make a human being. I mean, think about how much hope goes into a baby like Samuel, for instance - one so desperately prayed for for so long. Or how much courage has to go into a man like Gideon, who will be caught hiding and still be hailed as a mighty warrior. Or how much promise goes into a little baby developing in the womb of the virgin - Immanuel. 

That's not just dirt.

There's more to a man than a little mud and Spirit. Dust we are and to dust we will return, but don't ever think for even one second that God has some creative studio somewhere up in heaven with just a big ol' pile of dirt in the corner and He's just laying it all out over and over and over again. No, there's more to us than that. 

But what is the same about all of us is that no matter how we came about, whether we were dirt of the earth, bone of the bone, flesh of the flesh, or some kind of tapestry knit together, it is the same God who made us all. 

Whether we are rich or poor, skinny or fat, pretty or plain, humble or proud, contrite or cocky, good or bad, right or wrong, right or left, or whoever we are, it is the very same God who formed all of us. Every single one of us was created in His image to reflect and bear His glory. And that at least gives us a starting point for getting together. 

It is Job who gives us this truth as he ponders his life, his loss, his faith, his love. He looks around and says, "God made me. But didn't He make my servants, too?" And my wife. And my kids. And my cattle. And my everything. God made all of us, so who is anyone to say that one man has more value than another? That one man is worth more than another? 

We are all one-off masterpieces of an incredible Artist. There has never been another like us and there never will be. Dirt, maybe. Spirit, for sure. But each of us still unique in our creation, bearing a specific mark of our Creator, whether we're knit, spit, or fit together. Here we are. 

Isn't that cool?