Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Dirtballs, each and everyone

Karen Joines told us we were Dirtballs. Dirtballs, each and everyone of us. We thought we were created just a little lower than the angles. He reminded us to show some humility.

Professor of Hebrew, Dr. Joines, dissected the creation story for us. God took some dirt; breathed on it and made man. Dirt + God's breath = you and me.

I think of Prof. Joines on Ash Wednesdays. "Remember you are but dust and to dust you will return," he says. We read Psalm 51 as a prayer on Ash Wednesdays and thus pray to God, "take not your breath (spirit) from me." Without the breath, we are but dust. On this day we remember our mortality, our utter dependence upon the divine, and we are reminded, as Prof. Joines would say, "to show a little humility."