Honor Thy Dust

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dust, humor, IB, Job, life, messes, opinion

Photo by Jean van der Meulen on Pexels.com

Chuckling here, but I like order in my world and have these totally unrealized housekeeping standards. If you think life is a hard when then kids are small, wait until they are grown and move back in with you. Add your incredibly messy mom to the mix, in a house that is way too small.

I swept and mopped and polished my floors the other day and not ten minutes later we had to let the dog in. Naturally he’s all wet, muddy, and hyper, and we have hardwood floors, so of course he cannot just “come in,” he must crash and burn and wipe out, sliding mud across my floor and even up my walls, no less than 18 times on the way to his room.

I also chose to rake and clean up the yard not 3 hours before we got hit with a series of storms, crashing trees, power outrages, even a rare tornado thrown in for good measure. Now I have more debree in my yard and most of it is not even my own. I am now in worst shape then when I first began.

So I have lost the battle, heck, I have lost the whole war.

Did you know the Lord is in the saint making business? The Lord is in the saint making business. This was actually once a major revelation to me. I had no idea! I thought I was doing quite well maintaining some sense of order, calm, and control. And God said, let’s just see how she responds when we just take all that away from her……

Muhhuh hahaha! God is in the saint making business. And the beauty of those kind of tests is that He is not being mean, He is not trying to catch you at something, He is not trying to expose your weaknesses, He is trying to show you what you are really made of. He is Dad bragging.

God didn’t need to know what Job was made of, that story actually begins with, “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” Perhaps the enemy needed to know what Job was really made of, perhaps his friends too, and his wife. Perhaps even Job needed to see himself as God saw him, as perfect and upright, as stronger than he thought, as more faithful then he realized. Regardless, God already knew who Job really was inside.

We were made from dust and from dust we will return. Dust is actually the very same art medium that God used to make us with, and rather than honoring it as a Divine tool in His box of art supplies, we are often at war with it. We brush it off our shelves, we sweep it out of our homes. And when it piles up we often feel compelled to write our name in it, to draw pictures in it, to apologize for it.

Pardon our dust.

Or at least I do, one of the few remaining survivors of what seems to now be an ancient cult of dinosaur people who still want to try to make the bed and pick up after themselves as much as possible. Apparently, this is no longer standard operating procedure. Who knew?

But seriously, learn to honor thy dust and let it lay about because it is actually Divine and what is much more important to the Lord is how we love Him, and how we love one another even as we love ourselves. Don’t forget that part about loving yourself, because you can’t share what you don’t have.

So no beating yourself up over gathering dust allowed! Gaze at it fondly with a look of  adoration. It’s practically an act of worship and deep admiration for the Great Potter who chose to create us.

 

Photo by Jakob on Pexels.com