Dust and Glory

By: Haley Keller

Focus Verse: 

“For He knows how we are formed,

He remembers that we are dust.”

(Psalm 103:14)

It’s a new day. Time to pull up your bootstraps, and live your holy, worthy, grace-filled life! Which would be great if your morning hadn’t started off with breakfast all over the floor, toddlers to cry about it, and too much sharpness in your, “I will make you more food, don’t worry!”

So, with second breakfast finished, I’d like to meet you here and remind you: God remembers that you are dust. 

It is we who so often forget (or balk at) the fact that we are feeble. Yet, it often takes little more than an overturned plate to uproot our day, our focus, our devotion. And, if you’re like me, this is when I normally start to curse my finitude, locking myself in a shame cycle that whispers, ‘If only I were more like God… maybe then He’d like me more.’

Oh, friend. Pause with me. Let’s lean on a few anchoring truths:

  1. God does not expect perfection before 9:00 A.M.—or ever. Instead, He offers us daily invitations into His love. A love that is vaster than “the heavens are above the earth” (Psalm 103:11). These invitations don’t normally flash in neon letters. Mostly, they come as quiet chances to return after a moment of fragility.
  1. And we are already like God. We’re made in His image, yes—but even more tenderly, we’re made from earth and breath. In Genesis 2, we read that He kneels low, forming us from the ground and filling us with His very life. The same God who remembers our frailty is the one who breathed glory into it. That’s still what He does—remembering, breathing, day in and day out. 

He knows our frame. And He chooses to be near. 

Ultimately, His scars show that He’s not waiting for us to fail so He can chide us. His mercy isn’t offered despite our weakness—but because of it.

So if today feels like a swirl of forgotten appointments, tight pants, and prayers you started but didn’t finish—remember this: you are dust, yes. But you are dust held by glory that’s reaching out to you.

For the One who made you is not ashamed of your weakness. He is moved by it.

Let that be enough to steady your next breath. 

Let’s end with this prayer—

Inhale: He knows my frame.

Exhale: He remembers I’m dust.