“Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust,
we all dance to a mysterious tune,
intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.”
Albert Einstein
Does dust make you nuts? Does it cause you allergies and wreak havoc on your sinuses? Are you tired of dusting and trying to keep your house clean? Does this sound like an advertisement for some air purifying gadget? 🤣
Western Arizona is a dusty area, so I can relate to the downside of dust. We had a scary experience with dust about three years ago when Mike began a battle against a severe dry cough that was initially diagnosed as an allergy reaction. Over time the cough began to loosen into a nasty rattle of phlegm. In the early fall of that year, as we were leaving a local event, a strong wind arose in the parking lot, resulting in a dusty gust that caused Mike to experience a severe coughing fit. Later that evening, he began coughing up a mix of blood and puss that scared us sleepless. We became convinced that he was dealing with more than an allergy.
We decided to change doctors, and Mike found a much more proactive primary care physician who immediately ordered x-rays and a throat scope. The x-rays showed a spot on one of his lungs, and for a couple of weeks we lived in fear that he might have cancer. Finally, as soon as he saw the ENT, we had the answer to his misery – it was Valley Fever https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/valley-fever/symptoms-causes/syc-20378761. Once Mike saw the lung specialist, he began a regime of medication that slowly subsided the cough and put the disease into remission.
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10 ESV
Reflecting on that makes me wonder what came first, dust or wind.
Google’s® AI Overview says this, “According to the scientific understanding of the universe, dust came first than wind; as dust particles, created from the remnants of exploded stars, existed in space before the formation of planets and atmospheres which generate wind through uneven heating. [1, 2, 3, 4]” [1] https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/astronomers-find-dust-in-the-wind-of-black-holes/ [2] https://new.nsf.gov/news/all-we-are-dust-interstellar-wind [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust [4] https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/wind/
Through a Concordance search of Scripture https://www.thekingsbible.com/Concordance, dust is first mentioned in Genesis 2:7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Wind comes next in Genesis 8:1, “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged.”
Hum, you do your own math on that one, please.
But there is an element to dust that has always intrigued me. It started when I was younger, on a family trip from upstate New York to Colorado. While driving through Kansas, I yelled out, “Look a tornado!” My dad corrected me, “No, that’s a dust devil and it’s a big one.” Natural phenomena like that fascinate me.
There is beauty in dust, especially at twilight. Our backyard faces west, and as the sun begins its daily descents, beautiful swirls of dust appear through our back windows like translucent ghosts. Particles of dust dance in cones of light that make their own rainbows.
Think about the role that dust plays at sunset, the scattering of light it creates https://atoptics.co.uk/blog/sunsets/.
Have you heard of zodiacal dust? It’s dust particles that orbit the sun causing its light to scatter … “creating a prominent light phenomenon visible in the morning and evening sky.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/physics-and-astronomy/zodiacal-dust. Here in Western Arizona, we can see zodiacal light clearly when it appears, and it’s awe inspiring.
And it all points to our Lord and Creator!
“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power
and divine nature, have been clearly perceived,
ever since the creation of the world, in the things
that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
Romans 1:20 – ESV
Dr. David Jeremiah often tells a joke that makes me smile and laugh every time. It goes like this:
“God was once approached by a scientist who said, “Listen God, we’ve decided we don’t need you anymore. These
days we can clone people, transplant organs, and do all sorts of things that used to be considered miraculous.”
God replied, “Don’t need me huh? How about we put your theory to the test?
Why don’t we have a competition to see who can make a human being, say, a male human being.”
The scientist agrees, so God declares they should do it like he did in the good old days when he created Adam.
“Fine,” says the scientist as he bends down to scoop up a handful of dirt.”
“Whoa!” says God, shaking his head in disapproval. “Not so fast. You get your own dirt.””
Recent Comments