The Dust of His Feet

The Bible, the Christy Miller Series, and the turning of the Earth.

Those are the three things that contribute to the title of this blog.

Let's start at the Bible (a very good place to start, Julie Andrews). The phrase "the dust of his feet" comes from a verse in the lovely book of Nahum: short, obscure, and proclaiming doom to Nineveh. What's not to love?

The phrase appears in Nahum 1:3, "The LORD is slow to anger but great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of His feet" (NIV).

What an image that is to me. An infinitely almighty God, burning with jealousy for the hearts of His people, described as a hurricanic force...and the clouds are the dust of His feet.

I love pairing that verse with another: 2 Chronicles 16:9, "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him" (NIV).

Again, what a thing to imagine. The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleberg are not just a literary musing...

There is a living God who searches the world for His faithful ones - the ones who are going to give everything to serve and to know Him. He longs to give strength to His people.

So there's the Bible. And now we move onto the second movement of this explanation, which comes from this passage from the Christy Miller Series:

"Isn't it beautiful?" Todd looked up at the awakening sky. He pointed to a trail of puffy white clouds stomping across the seamless blue. "The clouds are the dust beneath His feet."

Christy smiled at Todd's poetic flair. He looked like a monk with the hood covering his head. "Did you just make that up?"

"No," Todd confessed. "An Old Testament prophet did. Nahum, to be exact. I always think of that verse when I see clouds that look like God just went for a morning stroll across the face of the earth."

We can all thank Todd Spencer for more than a few of my favorite metaphorical musings about God and nature, but I've never forgotten this passage in particular, even as the gap between when I read it and now gets wider and wider.

God on a morning stroll. In my mind, I automatically connect that idea, and the dust of His feet that goes along with it, with that verse in 2 Chronicles. God's stroll is not idle, but purposeful. His feet kick up the dust of the clouds and His eyes search unceasingly for His faithful ones. 

I want to be one that He finds on those strolls, and I know He can find me anywhere. In any moment of my imperfect existence, I just want to be faithful to Him. 

Which brings me around to the last point: the turning of the earth (there's a pun in there if you're looking for it!). My mother gives me only a few pieces of advice whenever I'm about to embark on a journey. "Take it all in," she says. "Enjoy the sunsets and the sunrises, and know that, wherever you are, you are in my heart."

It's the best advice I've ever gotten, and the reason why I've taken time to enjoy the rising and setting sun all around the world. Sunrise, in particular, reminds me of my Grandma Shirley. She was certainly one of the faithful ones that God found on His morning stroll...every morning that I knew her, she would be out on her porch or balcony to greet the morning, coffee and Bible in hand. She was a perfect picture of a faithful servant having a morning meeting with her God. Sunsets, on the other hand, belong to my mother. She is the queen of sunset pictures, and the reason that I will never get weary of watching the sun go down - it's not "just another sunset," and tomorrow's will be different from today's.

So wherever I am, thanks to my mother and grandmother, I am watching the sky. The sunrise, noon, the sunset, and the stars will never cease to hold me in awe and gut-wrenching appreciation. And I look at the clouds. I see the Dust of His feet on those morning, evening, or nightly strolls.

And I hope to be found faithful.

Sunrise in Malawi

 

Sunset in Malawi