I was in a Sunday School class at church today, and one of the scriptures we were looking at referenced the phrase the “dust of the earth”. It said: “And they had viewed themselves in their own carnal state, even less than the dust of the earth.” One of the class participants mentioned that they struggled with this verse, it made them feel like they weren’t of worth, because by comparison dust is worthless.
I don’t think the purpose of that scripture was to communicate that people are worthless to God. The plan of salvation definitely indicates otherwise. I think the scripture was trying to communicate that being in a carnal state is not where God wants us to be.
But that said, is dust actually worthless?
I came across a series on Netflix titled “Connected“. It analyzes how science tells us that things are surprisingly connected. One particular episode was titled “Dust”. It starts in the Sahara desert in the country of Chad. A couple of mountain ranges create a wind tunnel across an ancient lake bed, which pulls the dust from this lake bed up thousands of feet up into the air and blows it vast distances to the west. It doesn’t just all fall nearby.
One place that this dust travels to is the hurricane nursery off the western coast of Africa, the origination point for many of the storms that hit the Americas. When an evolving hurricane encounters a layer of this dust in the atmosphere, it interrupts the flow of moist air from the ocean, and has a smothering effect on the storm, reducing its intensity. This means less severe storms.
This dust also travels across the open water of the Atlantic ocean. The open ocean away from land can be barren, with not a lot of food sources. As some of the dust falls into the ocean it does a couple things. One, as it sinks to the bottom of the ocean, it serves as an anchor point for carbon content and literally acts as a carbon sink, helping to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere, so there are less greenhouse gases. Two, it provides nutrients to plankton in the water, helping to sustain the food chain. Some of that plankton performs photosynthesis, generating oxygen. Half of the oxygen we breathe is generated by seaborne plankton.
This dust also travels to the Amazon rainforest. About 27 million tons of African dust is estimated to fall there each year. A surprising thing is that the soil in the Amazon rainforest suffers from nutrient depletion from local rains and flooding, washing these away. Like a miracle, the nutrients from this falling dust basically equivalently replace what gets washed away. It’s like fertilizer falling from the sky.
The Sahara-to-Amazon path is not the only dust system on earth. There are multiple others.
Dust is not worthless. It is part of the grand plan, it has a role and purpose in doing great things, and has a surprising effect across the world. It can go long distances. It matters, and we need it. Kinda like you.
marcelk.org 