God made everything in this world. He made the trees. He made the sky, the moon, the stars. Everything in this world that we see and use every day was made by God. I find this amazing in itself; however, God made all of these lavish, beautiful, and amazing things so why did he choose to make us out of Dirt? He made gold and silver, and so many more beautiful things, but his prized possession? He made it from dirt?
I spent a few days pondering this idea, and even though I felt like a nerd when people would ask me what I am thinking about whereupon I would reply “dirt”, I found several different possibilities as to why this might be that he chose to use such a substance. Could it be that by choosing to create us using the dust of the earth God wanted to show us that he doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty? Or, that even though God has made all of these wonderful things he still finds joy in something as simple as dirt? It reminds me of children during Christmas time. Their parents will go out and spend lots of money to buy their child the fancy new toy that they have wanted to have all year. They open it up on Christmas eve, because their parents are gullible and they can easily convince them to let them open their gifts early, and they are super excited that they finally got what they desired; however, after just a short period of time they are building a fort in the corner of the room with the box that it came in while the toy itself lies motionless in the middle of the room. Even though they have this lavish toy they still find joy in something as simple as the box that it came in. Even though God has all of these beautiful things, he still finds joy in something as simple as dirt.
Now as I continued to look into and ponder dirt I realized a few things that I think are significant in God’s decision to make us out of dirt. First, dirt is the only natural substance that you can place a seed in and watch it grow. Now I’m sure that you could melt down gold or silver and place a seed inside of it; however, I haven’t seen any plants growing out of a bar of gold lately. Why would this matter? Well, this is important because when God chose to make us he didn’t want to create something that will just sit there and look pretty on a shelf, or in this case, on a round ball in the middle of a galaxy. He wanted to be able to breathe life into us and then as we live he could plant things inside of us, watch them grow, and enjoy the fruit that is produced from that growth.
I wasn’t content just to stop with these answers so I searched deeper and realized that not only can you plant a seed inside of dirt and watch it grow, but it is also one of the few substances that cannot be burned by fire. You can see an example of this with massive forest fires where everything is destroyed; however, the one thing that is not destroyed is the dirt. In fact, once the old things that have been growing in the dirt have been burned away, new seeds can be planted in that soil producing new life in the area. This takes place in every one of us as well. We all know times when we go through the “refiner’s fire.” The times when God brings to our attention the things that we have kept buried away so that we can take care of those things, burn them away, and allow God to plant new things in us that couldn’t grow when the old things were still deeply rooted within us.
Another interesting feature about dirt is that if you take it, mix it with water, mold it and shape it a little, you can then place it in that very same fire you will have a pot, or a vessel. With these pots/vessels you can do many things; however, since I’m still stuck on dirt at the moment my thoughts immediately went to “hey lets fill this pot with dirt.” This thought brought up some other things as well that I’m sure can relate spiritually. Many times people will take a pot and use it to plant something during the early stages of its growth. This step is generally important when the soil in the area is not suitable to germinate the seed, or the climate/environment is not capable to initiating the desired growth. People will fill a pot with dirt, place a seed in it, and nurture the seed until it has reached a point where it can be transplanted into the soil in the area. Now you may ask, “How does this relate spiritually?” Well when someone first starts out as a Christian they are not firmly planted yet. They are still in seed form. Many times they will go and try to position themselves equally with others who are more mature in their walk with God. This would generally be a good thing because they can learn from them; however many times in an attempt to impress them they will try to make it seem as though they are at a different place in their growth than they actually are. It’s like trying to plant a seed in the middle of a bush. It will not be very easy for it to grow, and if it does start to grow it has to try to adapt to the preset form of the bush that it is growing underneath. Now back to what I was saying about the pot though. When making a pot you will take the dirt and mix it with water to make clay. Water is generally symbolic of anointing throughout the scriptures. So let’s look at this as it relates to our lives… we take ourselves and mix it with the anointing that God has placed on us and then we go through the fire that God has presented us with so that we can cleanse the impurities then we become an earthen vessel. Now that we are a pot we are able to be used as the base where God can use us to help someone else grow.
I really like this particular analogy of the dirt because it shows an example of discipleship. The pot is there to help protect the new plant as it grows; however, the new plant will eventually grow to a point where it has to be removed from that pot and transplanted into the ground where it will obtain it’s nutrients on it’s own and be able to feed itself. The same thing goes for us. We are to disciple those around us; however, there comes a point where they will have to be able to receive from God on their own.
