He Remembers We Are Dust
Genesis 2:7 · 1 Peter 1:25 (NIV)
With Halloween approaching, the Sunday edition of 1440, a news digest, looked this morning at the long history of ghosts and the human longing to know what comes after death.
The editors distinguished ghost stories from scientific evidence and traced the rise of spiritualism in the United States and Britain in the mid-1800s. They also passed along one quiet detail from history. Mary Todd Lincoln hosted séances in the Red Room of the White House. According to the White House Historical Association, her son Willie had died of typhoid fever in February 1862, and his funeral was held in the East Room.
Then came the line that explains a great deal. "Experts believe that ghost stories help us process death, loss, and grief."
A mother in the White House, reaching for one more word from her boy. That story is deeply human. Many of us who have stood at a grave recognize the question underneath it. Job, a man in the Bible who suffered devastating losses, asked it plainly: "If someone dies, will they live again?" (Job 14:14).
The Bible does not pretend that question is small. It begins by telling us what we are made of. GOD "formed a man from the dust of the ground" and "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (Genesis 2:7). Dust and breath. That is the whole human story in four words. Every human life since has been both. We are dust, and we are alive because GOD breathed.
Psalm 103, a song of David, the shepherd who became king of Israel, says GOD has never forgotten it. "As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust" (Psalm 103:13-14).
Then David says the hard part out loud. Our lives are brief. "The wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more" (Psalm 103:16).
And then he turns. "But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him" (Psalm 103:17).
Psalm 78 says the same thing about a people who failed GOD again and again. "He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return" (Psalm 78:39). The people forgot GOD. GOD remembered them.
Here is a place to begin when we face our own frailty. Our hope rests on the GOD who remembers us.
A bishop named Irenaeus led the church in Lyon, in what is now France, around AD 180. In Against Heresies IV.3.1, he drew on Paul and the psalms to explain that GOD does not wear out with the world HE made. Creation can change without its Creator passing away.
The psalm he had in mind is Psalm 102. In the NIV it reads, "They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment... But you remain the same, and your years will never end" (Psalm 102:26-27). The same psalm holds a prayer many have prayed beside a hospital bed. "Do not take me away, my God, in the midst of my days; your years go on through all generations" (Psalm 102:24).
The apostle Peter, one of the first followers of Jesus, wrote the same truth to scattered believers. People fade like grass and flowers, he said, "but the word of the Lord endures forever" (1 Peter 1:25).
We are dust and breath. GOD is everlasting. And the everlasting GOD has set HIS love on the dust.
Christian hope does not depend on contacting the dead. It rests in a person. When JESUS was crucified, HE hung between two criminals. One of them asked a single thing. "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." JESUS answered, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:42-43).
Remember me. Such a simple prayer, carrying so much longing. In JESUS, GOD answers it. The man on the cross had no time left to rebuild his life. He asked to be remembered, and JESUS promised him far more than memory.
Our frailty leads us to the everlasting GOD and the hope of resurrection in JESUS. This Sunday’s Sabbath, From Everlasting, continues that reflection. Read the preview and request the full Sabbath reflection and music →
It does leave me thinking about how often "remember me" is the prayer underneath all my other prayers.
I am not here to prove myself. I am here to make HIM visible.
🙏 To the one who stood at a grave this year, GOD remembers the one you love, and HE remembers you.
🙏 To the one who feels as brief as a passing breeze, HE knows how you are formed.
🙏 To the one afraid of what comes after death, bring that fear to JESUS, who is the resurrection and the life.
🙏 To the one who wonders whether anything lasts, the word of the Lord endures forever.
Grace and Peace.