The Glory Of Living Dirt

Scripture: Genesis 2:7; Psalm 8

Theme: Humankind

Title: The Glory of Living Dirt

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

I want to talk to you today about humans. In other words I want to talk to you today about you, me and everyone else that has lived, is alive and will be alive on this magnificent planet we call earth.

How many of you this morning grew up watching nature shows?

How many of you still watch nature shows?

Growing up, my family would sit around the TV and watch a show called Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Each week the show would focus in on some part of the animal kingdom around the world as well as promote Mutual of Omaha’s insurance plans.

Some of you may remember that program. Two of the main characters that starred on the original shows were Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler. Each week they would take us with them on their journey to some faraway land. They would show us the natural habitat of some animal, bird or reptile. One week it might be a show about lions living in Africa. The next week it might be about elephants or crocodiles. Each week would be filled with knowledge and intrigue as they would encounter all kinds of animals.

You can still watch some of the original shows on RFD TV or by going on Mutual of Omaha’s website. You can also learn about Mutual of Omaha’s insurance plans as well.

The show was instrumental in increasing ecological and environmental awareness in our country. It taught how to be better citizens and caretakers of our planet. And it paved the way for other shows and today we have such channels dedicated to nature like the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet.

One of the things those shows did not spend a great deal of time with is with us humans. I can’t remember a show that focused exclusively on humans. In more present times, if you watch nature shows, we (humans) are often seen as the main problem in nature. Sometime during the show there will be something said about how we humans are harming the birds, the animals and the fish in the sea. There are some that believe that if there was a way that we could be removed from the planet everything would be perfect; that the real problem with our world is us; humans.

Now, as they say all of that, not many of them are doing anything to get rid of themselves. Not many of them are saying well I am going to do my part and then remove myself from the equation.

Of course, we don’t want that. We don’t want anyone harming themselves. And there are some very specific reasons why we don’t want anyone to hurt themselves. The Bible is clear in sharing with us that the greatest creation that exists on this planet is us: humans. There is no debate about this if you read the Bible. God is clear in saying this over and over again.

I love the way that the Holy Spirit impressed upon the writers of the book of Genesis to record our creation. Let’s take some time this morning and look at exactly what the Bible shares with us.

I. We are Dirt – We come from the Dust of the Ground – Genesis 2:7

We are told first that we were created from the dust of the ground. The word used in verse seven can mean dirt, clay, mud or simply earth.

We were not spoken into creation like the sun, the moon and the stars. We were not spoken into creation like the oceans, the rivers and streams. We were not spoken into creation like the birds, the animals, the reptiles and the fish. We were not spoken into creation like the mountains, the hills and the valleys.

God reached down and so to speak put his fingers into the earth and formed us. The words used here are later used to describe the work of a potter (Isaiah 45:9; 64:8). God lovingly formed us out of some dirt or clay. We are the work of His handiwork.

At first all of this may sound rather odd. Why were we not spoken into existence? Why use dirt of all things? Why not use some gold or diamonds? Why not use some parts of trees or even parts of other animals?

Why dirt?

I don’t have a definitive answer.

All I do know is that of all the things God created on our planet and around us we are different. We are different in design and in purpose. And we come from dirt and as the Bible tells us our physical bodies will go back to the dirt.