Life is amazing, although its building blocks are surprisingly common. Humans are made of the same elements found throughout Earth and the universe: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, etc. Even DNA, the chemical language of life, is found in all life on earth and is built from these same common elements. What is ordinary becomes extraordinary.

In this second creation account, humans are described as being created from the dust of the ground. This is both accurate and humbling to acknowledge that the elements that make up our bodies are readily available in the soil, the seas, and the air we breathe. We are dust.

Yet something extraordinary happened. Together, those elements became alive. The ancient author describes this moment as the Creator breathing into that human’s nostrils the breath of life. To have breath is to have life, to be a living being.

Often, we can mistakenly believe that only someone or something great can produce something great. Yet, these verses remind us of how the special is crafted from the common, the sacred springs from the mundane, and the natural gives rise to the supernatural.