It’s a good thing I’m not allergic to dust. As I’ve been cleaning my basement, gags and chest coughs have punctuated the effort.

After weeks of upstairs ripping, pounding and hammering on the floors, dust and sawdust downstairs has settled on every item, including miles of pipes and electrical lines running between basement ceiling rafters.

But my rag bag and I are gradually making our way through the debris, cleaning but also gathering piles of give-away, throw-away, put-away. I’ve been impressed by the pervasiveness of fine dust, which doesn’t limit itself to top-coating but works its way inside boxes and bags, too, necessitating a more sophisticated level of cleaning than I had hoped to do.

After three days of dust-removal, my thoughts have wandered through the many Bible stories in which dust played a part, beginning of course with God’s forming of the very first human being. That momentous occasion was dust’s finest hour. Shortly after that God told the serpent he’d have to crawl around in the dust on a permanent basis. With all the dust-crawling I’ve done, I can relate.

For the most part, dust has been a negative. Think about when Moses was up on Mt. Sinai having a miraculous encounter with God. His impatient followers were down below worshipping their newly-created golden idol. When Moses saw that, he taught them a powerful lesson by grinding the gold into dust, scattering it on their drinking water and forcing them to drink it. Impressive.

Another time God turned acres of dust into lice as a plague against his enemies, which must have been effective.

Scripture also uses a dust-picture to help us understand the smallness of the universe compared to his greatness.

We also find scriptural people sitting in dust or throwing it on their heads while mourning over sin.

And we’re all familiar with God’s description of what happens to our bodies after we die: they “return to dust.”

As I worked in the basement with dust-bunnies and cobwebs laced through my hair and clothes, I thought of my favorite dusty Bible story. The narrative says Jesus was busy debunking the shallow wisdom of the Pharisees as they stood ready, rocks-in-hand, to stone a prostitute. Jesus did something mysterious and wonderful. He squatted down and wrote a message in the dust.

What was it? Maybe a note to the woman: “Get ready for a big surprise.” Maybe a message to his watching Father: “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Maybe a simple, “Love covers sin.” Some day I hope to find out.

In the mean time, dealing with the dust in our lives can grow into a full time job as we clean up…

…both the sinful parts and the basements.

“Remember your Creator now… before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:6,7)