You may be in the dirt, but new life is beside you

​There's a story in the ninth chapter of John's gospel in the bible. Jesus and his disciples encounter a man who had been blind from birth. The disciples asked Jesus, whose fault is it that this man is blind? Is it his fault or is it his parents' fault?

Jesus told them this man wasn't blind because of what anyone had done wrong, he was blind because God was about to do amazing things with the man's blindness.

Then Jesus got down on the ground. He spit into the dirt until he could gather a handful of mud. Then he rubbed the mud on the man's eyes and told him to go wash it off in a pool of water.

The man did as he was told, and then the man could see.

I take a couple of powerful things away from this story. The first is the man didn't ask for sight. He was simply going about his day as he always had, sitting in the dirt and begging. But then unannounced, Jesus comes along and gets down in the dirt with him.

And gives him new life.

I am also reminded of the story in Genesis, when God got down in the dirt and created Adam, the very first man. He molded him from the dirt and blew breath into his nostrils and the man came alive.

The man came alive like life had never come alive before.

Oh how encouraging that is. There are days I can feel no more alive than the dirt and the dust beneath my feet. The dirt and the dust I find myself sitting in - wondering - whose fault is it that I am here?

Oh how encouraging it is that there is a God who has no time for or interest in blame or fault, but only in bringing new life. New life, not from some far away place called heaven or the galaxies or the universe, but from the dirt he sits in right next to me.

Oh how encouraging that our God is not a distant God, but instead a God who wants to blow his breath into mine; he wants to rub his muddy hands on my eyes. Our God doesn't just want to be imagined, he wants to be felt.

Oh how encouraging that God isn't judging my dirt from trillion miles away, but sitting in it with me. Not seeing dirt at all, only new life.

Friends, if you are in the dirt today, you are not alone. God isn't waiting for an invitation, he is there with you. He knows just how little beauty you find in this space you're in, which is precisely why he will not stop until nothing but beauty is pouring from that space.

Our God is not afraid of your dirt.

Our God is not judging your dirt.

Our God is sitting in it.

With you. Touching you. Breathing new life into you.

New life is coming. In fact, it's already there.

It's right beside you.