All go to one place, all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
–Ecclesiastes 3:20
Take a close look at yourself.
Actually, you’d need an electron microscope to look this closely. Maybe a particle accelerator. When you get a super close view of…you, you might be surprised to find out:
You’re more than dust. More than matter.
In fact, all matter (you and me and trees and the sun) makes up just a tiny percentage of the universe. You and I are products of quantum fields, energy, and interacting particles, some with mass, some without, all moving in ways that are hard to imagine.
You know that famous Einstein equation: E=mc²? It means that mass and energy are interchangeable.
That’s right. In a sense, you’re basically a little ball of energy.
But thank God for our bodies! In a way that’s almost impossible to understand, matter, energy, chemistry, and biology all came together to create you. From your eyebrows down to your DNA.
Psalm 139 says “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” The writer of that psalm had no idea just how right they were. Quantum mechanics is not for the faint of heart.
But what about this “dust” notion? It’s kind of a theme in the Bible, this idea that our bodies can be reduced to a few ounces of dust. Those who have scattered a loved one’s cremated remains can attest to this.
But if, indeed, we’re just walking “dirt bags,” what animates us? What allows us to express or enjoy beauty? What makes us feel compassion? What causes us to question our own existence?
Genesis says God breathed life into dust. We seem, after all, to be more than matter alone.
While science continues to seek answers about the makeup of the universe, Christians have a parallel path to take. We seek answers, too, but we’re looking for signs of God. The Holy Spirit. The divine presence.
When answers, whether scientific or spiritual, are hard to pin down, we can look to our own lives for some important clues. We can look at our hands and see the matter. We can look in our hearts and see God.
The physical world is all around us, but we can’t stop there. What fills us and animates us is so much more.
This life-energy — what people of faith might call the breath of God — may seem hard to comprehend, but trust me when I say this:
God made you…
and you matter. (And then some)
Have a great week,
Mitch
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