Grace can raise from the dust
Divine Grace can Raise from the Dust
Dear brothers and sisters, I come to you today, with a message of hope, to announce to us that the grace From Jesus’ death and resurrection is able to Raise us up, is able to raise any man any woman any situation from the dust of nothingness, from the dust of corruption, from the dust of deadness to sin, from the dust of disgrace, shame, from the dust of a crippling fear and anxiety, regrets and Guilt to a grace-filled life of triumph, victory and righteousness.
I does not matter the depth of where we are and of our situations. In fact, our situations, may have been written off by the world as irredeemable. Blinded by the darkness and the heaviness of our situations, we too may have written off certain aspects of our lives. But of a truth, no depth is beyond the reach of the Divine Grace.
Right from the beginning of the scriptures, we see the power of grace to raise and to transform from the dust or rather to create from the dust. The Book of Genesis 2:7, 1:27 tell us that out of the dust from the ground God formed/ created man in his own image, male and female he created them, breathing into his nostrils the breath of Life he became a living being. Here I am combining the two creation accounts in order to bring out more beautifully the power of grace in raising us from the dust of our situations. This is not to say that we were dust before God transformed us into human persons. No, not at all, However, the creation account reveals the truth that our creation is a revelation of the power of grace.
The image of the dust, is often used to symbolise sufferimngs (see Micah 7:17, Gen 3:14—licking the dust like serpent). Something unwanted, of no value trampled underfoot. Even though the dust is something in itself, it can often denote nothingness, shame (see Lam 3:29) and helplessness or weakness as psalm 103:14 prayed that God may remember how weak we are since we are dust etc etc. In other words, dust isn’t something anyone desires. Hence Isaiah 52:2 talks about shaking off the dust of sin, shame and guilt. To Return to dust as we find in Gen 3:19 would mean to experience death. Yet from this very dust, God created something as beautiful, the human person in his own image and destined him to a life of grace and eternal life.
The dust of the ground from where God formed man, male and female he created them would have remained simply dust had it not been touched by the hands of Grace. But the moment the hands of grace held it up, the story was going change. In Jesus’ life, death and resurrection God has perfectly taken up again every aspect of humanity, because Jesus is the Grace that makes salvation possible. Hence, there is a transformative change that is already taking place in us.
Sometimes, some areas of our lives take on in some shape or form the nature of the dust. By this I mean, when we find ourselves in that situations of helplessness, shame, being despised like the dust trampled underfoot. Maybe in our family or among our friends we are considered irrelevant, not respected and loved. Sometimes we may find ourselves in situations where we feel that our lives like dust are wasting away. It could also be that various other circumstances in our lives have made us to lose all hope, and like the dust, we almost write our situation off. Like Cleopas and his friends on the road to Emmaus as they expressed their disappointment over Jesus’ death. In their words they had hope that Jesus would be the one to save Israel. Now they are lost, disappointed, all hope lost. Now they move away from Jerusalem to Emmaus, away from witnessing to the resurrection to a place of hiding in shame and disillusionment. Their situation was like that of the dust of the ground, they were at their lowest point. But When Jesus the Grace of salvation appeared he raised them up and caused their cold hearts, metaphorically speaking, to burn again and to witness to the risen Lord.
But today, I announce to you children of God, be of good courage because the divine grace is always stronger than the depth of the dust of our situations. We are products of the faithful grace. All things may fail and give up on us, the grace that brought about your existence will never let you go. We can still be raised up to walk in the victory of God’s children. The Truth is, the dark night of waiting on the Holy Saturday did not continue when the grace of resurrection was made manifest on the easter Sunday. As it is in the very nature of all creatures to pass away, these moments of the dust of will pass and grace will triumph.
But I would like to invite you to contemplate the truth that, our whole lives have all been taken up in Jesus by the hands of grace. Therefore, our story is about to change. As Isaiah 43:19 says, it is happening already, do you perceive it. This is true because the Divine Grace can always raise us up no matter the depth of where we may find ourselves.
Fr Chinedu