It was only a couple of short weeks ago that the United States was embroiled in a vicious election. Romney and Obama were locked in a hard fought race in which both was trying to get elected as president. Supporters for either side spent countless hours campaigning. Facebook news feeds were filled with political rants and memes designed sometimes to point out the good qualities of their candidate, but more often the evils of the other.
Every headline in every newspaper, print and electronic, was dominated by the campaign and what either side was doing.
Today, two weeks later, I did a Google search on both candidates. This was the top result for Obama
And this was the top result for Romney
Where has the fire and fervor gone? I thought this election was going to divide the nation! People were threatening to secede from the United States of America! The policies of either party were at the heart of the American electorate!
Not impressed face? Twilight movies?
How is it that the two men whose every move was being watched by this nation are reduced to this?
Did Obama ask to have his picture taken with the 16 year old silver medalist, making the face she's famous for, then in a moment of realization think "What am I doing? I'm the leader of the free world!" Did Romney, reaching his hand into the giant tub of buttered popcorn while watching sparkling vampires, think, "Maybe I don't make very good decisions."
Or could it be, that though we had built them up to be something huge, something larger than life, they are still just regular, ordinary men who do regular ordinary things?
I wonder if when God handed Moses the Ten Commandments and he had written that whole thing about not having other gods, if He had the American political process in mind.
The truth we see now is that these aren't gods, or even anything slightly better than mere mortals. They are, like us, walking, breathing piles of dust. When God expels Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden, He gives them this reminder:
By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return. - Genesis 3:19, NLT
That goes for presidents, candidates, and us, too.
We're dust. Big, walking piles of dust.
I don't think God reminds us of that to demean us. Instead, I think its a reminder of perspective. We're mortal, and that's ok. We were created to live on the earth and enjoy the earth, and when we try to make ourselves more than that, or make others more than that, we're bound to be disappointed in the result.
And I think the collective human consciousness knows that. It's evidenced in just how quickly we forget that we had set these dust piles on pedestals. Instead, we go back to concentrating on the things we really regard as important: peace, hope, joy, and love. We long for family gatherings, seasons of Thanksgiving, and celebration of the one who was born in a manger in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.
What an interesting place for a king. Not just that it was lowly, but that it was dusty. The Lord of all creation who had formed man out of dust was laid in a manger in a stable filled with dust. A craftsman amongst materials, a potter amongst his clay, humbling himself to become one of these dust-people so that he might save these dust-people.
Why?
So we might truly know peace, hope, joy, and love.
That's all He's ever wanted for us. Remember who you are. Eat, drink, and be merry. And live life abundantly. Know the peace that passes understanding. Be filled with eternal hope. Experience unbounded joy. And above all, love God and love others.
Human endeavors come and go. Elections which seem so important a couple of weeks earlier are forgotten and even the candidates go back to normal. It's as if something innate within us is constantly calling us back to being dust. But not just any dust - dust that is loved by a creator who rolled around in the dust of a manger just to be closer to us.
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