Grace in the Dirt
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.” – Genesis 3:17b-19, NIV
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. – Romans 8:18-22, NIV
“The passage has brought us full circle from creation’s bliss to sin’s burden. Nevertheless, the sentencing itself contains God’s gracious provision…” – Kenneth A. Mathews
As you step back from Genesis 3 and take it all in, you realize the grace of God abounds even in the mess that has been made of things. There are graces in the particulars but, the whole of the chapter oozes grace. God could have left humanity to wonder what the implications of their sin were. He could have never pronounced the hope of a coming deliverer and a final victory to rebel humankind. He could have left them to work out the nature of their newly fractured world on their own. He did not. He graciously came to them. And He came to walk with them, to invite their confession, and to explain the results of their disobedience; not to curse them. He didn’t come to the garden to smite or ridicule. He came to explain and without His explanation, we quickly get everything wrong. We tend to see the effects of sin as God’s fault. We blame Him for all manner of tragedies and losses when, in fact, the vast majority of those horrific events are simply more evidence, that it wasn’t ever supposed to be this way. It boggles the mind to think that in Creation, before decay and death had taken hold, God saw a time and created a design that included such vital functions. If you are familiar at all with the idea of composting, you’ve a little window into our Creator’s genius. Even in the dirt, there is grace. How kind of our God to explain clearly how the now sin-fractured world would work (and not work). How kind of Him to give clarity and hope about what is to come. While it is possible to easily observe that something has gone horribly wrong with us and the world in which we live, it is still a breathtakingly beautiful creation. Even the dirt produces life.
Questions for further discussion/life application:
What tone of voice does God have when you read Scripture? What tone of voice does God have when you’ve heard the questions: Where are you? And What have you done? What does that say about your perception of God? Your perception of God’s relationship to you?
Oftentimes, only perspective allows us to perceive grace in the dirt. Reflecting on your story, what was one time when you didn’t see grace in the dirt for a long time? What did you learn in the process? How did the process shape you as a follower of Jesus?
Is there any unconfessed sin in your life?
Here’s a great song for bringing home grace in the dirt: This My Soul