By Jessica Brodie
Have you ever planted something in the ground? It’s a beautiful feeling to rest there, on your knees in the dirt, digging a little hole and nestling a living thing within, then tucking loose soil all around and patting it just so, giving it a little water and sending it off into the world to grow and thrive.
Unfortunately, I am not gifted at getting things in the ground to grow, though I’ll keep trying. At least I can keep my house plants alive.
But imagine for a moment our heavenly father doing just that—on his knees in the soft soil, painstakingly handcrafting the first human being and breathing the breath of life into him. In the Book of Genesis we’re told God did just this. God didn’t just speak humanity into existence. He put his fingers into the very ground we walk upon and crafted Adam by hand. As Genesis 2:7 tells us, “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (NIV).
Consider that! He didn’t just nod his head and, poof, there was a human—though he certainly could have. Not only that, but when he realized Adam needed a companion, he got to work once more, sending Adam into a deep sleep, taking one of his ribs, and fashioning a woman from his body (Genesis 2:20-22).
God got his hands dirty. He took care and time to handcraft us just so. The Bible tells us he handcrafted us in his own image (Genesis 1:26). What a glorious gift that is!
Just as staggering is that he didn’t just set us free from there, turning us out into the world without a second thought. God stayed with us.
Even though we people let him down over and over and over again—going astray, turning to other gods, and doing things our own way—he kept after us, speaking words of life, direction, guidance, and wisdom into our souls. He chased us down across the millenia, eventually sending his very own son, the Word that became flesh (John 1:14), to be our savior. He sent the Holy Spirit when Jesus’s time on earth was complete, and he still speaks into us today, guiding us and showing us the way.
It’s an intimate love that our father has for us, a personal love.
Sometimes we feel like God is so far away. We get so caught up in our own lives, our own worries, and the pressures of this world that we cry out to him and we don’t hear anything … so we think he has pulled away from us.
But our heavenly father doesn’t pull away from us. He’s there, intimately involved, watching and guiding and waiting. He’s a good father, waiting for his prodigal to return home. A good father, seeking out his lost sheep. A good father, just waiting for us to settle down and quiet all the noise of the world so we can hear his voice once more. He whispers tenderly to us with love and grace and mercy, and he always welcomes with us with open arms.
The God who created us cares for us with a vast and never-ending love so wide and deep and true we cannot possibly imagine its scope.
If you’re feeling distant from God today, consider the great love our father had for us to handcraft us, painstakingly, forming every inch of our bodies. Psalm 139:13 tells us that he knitted us together in our mother‘s womb. Imagine this for a moment! Crafted from the dirt, knitted in the womb… loved and cared for, every one of us.
Take heart, my friends. No matter what life brings, no matter what we go through, there is nothing—nothing!—that can separate us from his love, now and forever. Amen and amen.
Author’s note: This blog was inspired by a message given by Leonard Fairley.
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