FOUNDATIONS PART 2: From Where Do I Come?

"Man is obviously made to think. It is his whole dignity and his whole merit; and his whole dut is to think as he ought. Now, the order of thought is to begin with self, and with its Author and its end. Now, of what does thte world think? Never of this, but of dancing, playing the lute, singing, making verses, running at the ring, etc., fighting, making oneself king, without thinking what it is to be a king and what to be a man." -- Pascal, Pensees, 2.146

“The LORD God formed the man (adam) of dust (aphar) from the ground (adamah) and breathed (naphach) into his nostrils the breath (neshamah) of life (chay), and the man (adam) became a living creature (chay nephesh). And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.” (Gen 2:7-8)

First, let it be said that I come from God. God formed me and breathed into me life. He is the active agent. I am the passive clay.

Being a descendant of Adam, I too was created from the dust from the ground. The fundamental material makeup of my being is dirt. A humble beginning for sure. In fact, it is from this truth where we get the word “humility.” The term is derived from the word humus which mean earth. One who is humble is lowly … like a servant that must bow his head to the earth when in the presence of a superior, so we to are lowly creatures. We must never forget our humble beginnings lest we attempt to foolishly throw off our servant-hood and attempt to become our own master’s and makers. So I am dirt and dust … a non-glorious material. In fact, a piece of property cannot depreciate beyond its worth in land … dirt is dirt and it is as low as you can go. I am also fashioned from dirt that was outside of the garden, thus I was made in the wilderness. I am a “wild” creation made from wild dirt!

But we are also made up of a second element … breath, or spirit. The divine breaths into us life. The fundamental immaterial makeup of my being is breath. This is strange … I am a combination of both dirt (lowly) and spirit (divine). I do not signify by “dirt” that it is less grand or base for God is its creator, thus there is within it a beauty and worth that is extrinsic because it is God’s.

I come from God. He made the earth from which I was made. I am a humble convergence of matter and spirit. My value is that of dirt and spirit. On one level this is very little, but in the eyes of God, it is extremely valuable, for I am his creation.