Out of the Dust

Today is a rainy day. One of those cloudy days that you wake up to the pitter patter sound of rain on your window sill and the chilly, dank feeling in the air. It's days like these that everything and everyone seem to move slowly. It is as if the whole world is watching the rain drops roll down the car window to the beat of a deep cello strum. The rolling thunder is an added accompaniment that just makes the day fuller. 
I love days like these. They are never my most productive days on paper but they are days during which I am reminded of the beauty in God's creation. Also they give me a wonderful excuse to snuggle into my blankets and pillows and curl up with a cup of steamy tea.
This morning at The Vine worship service we sang Beautiful Things by Gungor. I have probably mentioned before that I love this song. like LOVE love. The songs chorus sings to the Lord that "You make beautiful things out of the dust." I could sing that all day. Lord, I just want to scream that in every moment, whenever I witness a random acts of kindness moment or even see a large scale positive change come into fruition.
But today as I could hear the rain in the background of the band, I thought about the idea of mud. Train of thought: dust + water(rain) = mud. I make clay on a regular basis. It is a very, very messy process. I weigh out the necessary types of water and dust and then dump them into the mixer. I let it mix for a while, tending to it along the way and then finish with new batch of great clay and mud covered me. The water is very necessary or obviously my clay would not be clay or mud, it would just be a bunch of dust. Just like me making clay, God turns dust into something beautiful and useful, he adds water and nourishment. We are the dust. When thinking about this simile, I am struck by how there are things in the clay mixing process that are also in the life growing process that I had not thought about when singing this song previously. First off, there is the mess. I always think that my life will become lovely instantaneously. I will pray and then zap, my life is perfect. That is just not reality. Mixing is a process. Second, there are needed tools like the mixer for clay. What are the tools that God is using in my life? my church family? my friends? scripture? All of the above.

All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all

This song gives hope.
A garden needs water to grow. Dust needs water to become clay. Life needs water to thrive and make beautiful things. Even when life seems barren and messy, our Father is watering us and we just have to suck up this water and be nourished. Grow toward the light. Go with the turn of the clay mixer.

Ecclesastes 3:9-12 (ESV)
What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.

We are the dust and the worker who toil away, yet we are called to find joy in this work, in the process of making clay. God has made everything beautiful with time.