"And the Lord God formed Man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and Man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7).
This simple verse tells us so much about human beings. It tells us about the One who made us, what He made us with and how He made us.
The first thing we see is that God made us. We did not make ourselves; neither did we just emerge from the ground. ‘The Lord God formed Man’.
The verse also shows us the three different parts of Man. It shows that there is a part of us that God formed from the Earth, another part that He breathed into us and what we became as a result of those two actions.
The Dust of the Ground. The ground was an already existing material that God had created. Out of that already existing material, He formed us. The substance of Man’s flesh, sinews and bones consist of the same elements as the soil and limestone that form the crust of the Earth. Interestingly, God also made animals out of the same material. That means there is an earthly nature of Man that is also shared by animals. That nature, by itself, does not make us unique. It merely gives us biological life.
The Breath of Life. The source of this breath is God. It comes from within God. It is that which gives life to us. The word ‘breath’ also means inspiration. God is the source of our inspiration.
Man became a Living Being. Our lives depend on God. Man is not simply alive; we have something more than that. God made us in His image. Our Creator has given us the ability to do things as He does them. Just as He created us out of already existing material, He has also given us the ability to also make things out of already existing material. We owe our unique creative abilities to God.
Our whole being comes from God, and it is only in Him that we will find wholeness in life.