A couple of years ago, our pastor asked us to think about what God might say about us in a Fatherly way, and then gave us an assignment for the following week to share what we had discovered. At the time, I was in a low place, feeling like a failure as a mom, wife, Christian... I told Jesus there was no way I could complete that exercise. The only thing I could come up with was dirt... I felt like dirt, but I probably couldn’t share that. Sigh. “I am no better than dirt,” I said to God.
A little while later, that still small Holy Spirit voice spoke to me, in the gentlest, sweetest way possible. “Dirt?” “Ha, ha, ha! Amelita, Let me tell you about dirt! Do you know how many billions of living microorganisms and macro-organisms there are beneath the square foot of dirt you are standing on? And look at all of the beautiful trees, flowers, fruits, vegetables that grow up out of the ground to decorate the earth and provide for its inhabitants. Dirt, the thing you think is so terrible, is TEAMING with life. It is what I chose to create and breathe life into the first human. It is death resurrected, a living example of my sacrificial love for this world and the perfect picture of what I have done in your life.” Needless to say, I was completely blown away. Wow!
In recent weeks, I confess, I have struggled and have been buried in big emotions for reasons that are beyond my control. I’ve been discouraged, ashamed, remorseful, feeling terribly alone, and basically feeling like, well, “dirt.” I even told God, “I feel like dirt.” At that moment, the memory above came flooding in once again, reminding me of God’s beautiful dirt, so full of dead and decaying things, yet bursting at the seams with an abundance of the promise of life. In my mind’s eye, I pictured the dark soil beneath my feet pulsing with the life hustling and bustling within, much like a pregnant woman’s belly dances back and forth with the movements of the growing baby inside her body.
Isn’t this just like Jesus? He takes something dirt-y and turns it into a vessel for the purpose of bringing forth His Kingdom. He takes nothing and turns it into something. That which was lost, He restores. The broken, useless stone which the builders rejected, is the very stone God chose as His foundation. The one sheep gone astray is the one He relentlessly pursues. The promise of eternal life in the midst of all the death and destruction around us may not be seen with our tired, discouraged eyes, but yet, it is there, pulsing beneath the surface of our present realities and circumstances.
Dirt, in spite of all its death, is filled with God’s glory, a miraculous representation of His desperate love for this world.
I am His beautiful dirt. And so are you…
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