3:90, #584: Dirt Doodles

This week I've been reading part of John 8 in John MacArthur's Daily Readings from the Life of Christ, volume 2 (good devotional, by the way, for those of you looking for one) where Jesus stooped down and wrote something in the dirt while being confronted by Pharisees with an adulteress. Did you ever wonder what He wrote? One Christian comedian posited that it was the name of their buddy who was not dragged before Jesus, considering that 'she was caught in the act.' In any event, it got me thinking on how dirt is important to God.

Way back in Genesis 1 He took some dirt of the ground and made Adam; hence, my Bobism that my gender was prototyped by the Original Dirtball; explaining our behavior on more than one occasion. And, since we came from dirt we end up 'dust to dust' as Genesis 3:19 indicates, quoted in funerals down through the ages.

Then I recalled that in Exodus 8:16ff (OK, so I looked up the verses...so sue me!) Moses is to strike the dust of the earth so it becomes gnats as a plague on all of Egypt. Guess you could say that was some dirty business?! ;p

There's also the time In John 9:6 that Jesus healed the blind guy by taking dirt, spitting on it, smearing the mud on the guy's eyes, and then commanding him to wash it off for his blindness to be healed. Voila! He once was blind, but now he sees! (Tip of the hat to John Newton for 'Amazing Grace,' my favorite hymn.)

Then there's the home-schooling Mom's nightmare verse: Mark 7:1-2, "And the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together around Him when they had come from Jerusalem, and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed." Jesus basically said washing the outside really didn't matter, but cleansing the inside of the human spirit was essential, since that's where evil originated to defile someone. Sooo... we probably won't be seeing this particular verse on the 'Memory Verse of the Week' Calendar very soon! ;p

Well, before this goes too far, this dirt person's going to sign off...but not go play with my toy cars in the dirt like I used to as a kid!! Now I use a John Deere instead!!
Got 'good dirt?'