Dust in the Wind

From dust you came, to dust you shall return.  This thought popped irreverently into my mind when I came home to neglected housework.  I sighed, and thought how I hated dusting.  Then I opened the front door, leaving the glass storm door closed.  The sun shone in brightly, and I saw dust on the chair rungs under a table.

Hm, that should be easy with the feather duster, I thought.  But I could see dust particles flying around in the beam of light when I wielded the duster.  So much for that. (I heard of a boy who was sent to retrieve something from under the bed, and he came back saying, "There's so much dust under there, I can't tell if someone is coming or going!")

There is a humorous poem by Rose Milligan that expresses my sentiments exactly:

                                         Dust if You Must

Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better
To paint a picture or write a letter,
Bake a cake or plant a seed,
Ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must, but there's not much time,
With rivers to swim and mountains to climb,
Music to hear and books to read,
Friends to cherish and life to lead.

Dust if you must, but the world's out there,
With sun in your eyes, the wind in your hair,
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain,
This day will not come around again.

Dust if you must, but bear in mind,
Old age will come, and it's not kind,
And when you go--and go you must--
You, yourself, will make more dust.
               ~~~~~~~~~

When Jesus was teaching about judging others in Matthew 7:3, He said, "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? (4) Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and behold, a beam in in thine own eye?"

This always reminds me of a dust mote in someone's eye, such as a mote that is visible in a beam of sunlight.  It seems as if the beam of sunlight is also in the beholder's eye so that he cannot see to remove the offending particle from his brother's eye.

Jesus has the solution when He says in verse 5, "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

I may be more of a Mary than a Martha, whom Jesus told to get out of the kitchen.  Sometimes there are just more important things to do than cook and dust!