Some Pretty Valuable Dust!

"For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return." Genesis 3:19 NLT.  The truth that we can not deny takes center stage on Ash Wednesday. We are all going to die; on that point I think all people can agree. But Christians have something that other people do not. We have hope. And where does our hope lie? In the book of John, in the Bible. Jesus performs one of his greatest miracles. His friend Lazarus was dead. There was no doubt that he was dead for he had been in the tomb for four days.  Lazarus' sisters Mary and Martha summoned Jesus days before, with the news that Lazarus was sick. Jesus intentionally waited two days before making the long journey to their home. Jesus was late and Mary and Martha were not happy. They asked why He had not come sooner for they knew Jesus had the power to heal their brother. Jesus told them that their brother would rise again. He asked where the tomb was and He told the mourners to roll the stone away. "Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said "Father, thank you for hearing me, You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.  Then Jesus shouted, "Lazarus, come out!" And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, "Unwrap him and let him go!"" John 11:41-44 NLT. So Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, four days dead! And this is the hope that I spoke of earlier: Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die." John 11:25-26 NLT. Yes we were made from dust, and when we die we will return to dust, But if we believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he came to save us from our sins and if we ask him to live in us and through us we will never die.  That is our hope. That is why we can be sure that when our short time on earth is over we will live Forever with Jesus in Heaven!  So if you are worried about death, or you think that perhaps it won't happen to you, it will.  But remember the hope. The God who created us from dust came down to earth to die for us so that He could spend eternity with us.  We must be some pretty valuable dust!!!  You can read his story in the Bible in the Book of John chapter eleven. May He bring you Peace and Hope!