The LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. Genesis 2:7
It’s not uncommon for my wife to randomly look at me and say, I like you so much better now. I know exactly what she means. It wasn’t all that long ago that I wasn’t at all likeable. Enslaved to my addiction, I couldn’t see past my own immediate appetite, sacrificing everything for it. I turned on my faith, my family, and my career, all for my pills. My life was on fire and anyone close to me became engulfed in the inferno. So, no. She didn’t like me very much back then. Frankly, I didn’t like me either. Those were dark times when we didn’t know if our marriage was going to last. Today however, we genuinely love each other but we also like each other, spending most of our free time together.
What changed between those dark times and now? I did. God changed me. I was dead in my addiction. Then, God used profoundly painful consequences to resurrect me. He used that misery to teach me faith and obedience. In abandoning myself and turning to him, he breathed life back into me and my marriage. What was once dead or dying is now alive and thriving.
Today’s passage reveals this truth about God – It’s in his nature to breathe life into that which is dead. In the creation story, we read about how God took inanimate dust and sculpted a man out of it. Then, like administering CPR, he pushed his own breath into that man, bringing him to life. Creation of life – This is his nature. Thankfully though this wasn’t a once-and-done event. God is also in the business of recreation. It is in his nature, and it is his desire to breathe life back into us.
The problem is that often we either don’t know we need God’s breath of life, or we’re just not ready for it. Enslaved to our own way, we don’t realize that we need radical transformation and new life, or we simply aren’t ready to give up the old one. God doesn’t force life upon us. In his wisdom, he allows us to follow him or not. He longs that we know the life and joy for which we were created, but he allows us to cling to the dust if we insist.
I like my new life though. I like that my wife likes me now. I’ve found that my way is death and God’s way is life. So, today and every day, I’ll make a genuine effort to find my life in his breath, following his path instead of mine.