Life is a gift. We know that. But sometimes we forget. We give in to cultural pressures prompting us to believe we are self-made. We think, “I am who and where I am because I’ve worked hard to get here.”

Genesis 2 tells a different story. It says that we are dust and that God’s breath animated that dust into life. We are who we are first of all because of the life-breath of God. Our very breath depends on him. Moment to moment we rely on the gracious gift of breath that makes human life possible. God is the constant source of our being, not us. At the same time, God sees our vulnerabilities and the challenges of being human. Psalm 103 tells us that God remembers we are dust. God calls us to remember too. When we do, gratitude happens. “Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name” (Psalm 103:1).

Amazingly, God not only sees our vulnerabilities; he also has experienced them in the flesh. When Jesus, who is fully God, lived on this earth, he fully took on the limitations and vulnerabilities of being human. What gives us hope is that Jesus, clothed with our own flesh, died, rose to new life, and is now ruling with God in heaven. The dust from which we were made has entered the heavenly throne room on our behalf. “Praise the LORD, my soul”!