It’s Only Reasonable

From our first crying breath to our first waking this morning to the last gasping breath we will take before we die, each breath of life is a breath from God.

Friday, August 11, 2023

by Joy Lucius

Reprinted from The Stand

For most of my life, since I was 11 years old, to be exact, my favorite chapter of the Bible has been Romans 12. Even now, 49 years after I first read it for myself, this chapter speaks to me, especially in The Message version. Talk about direct and powerfully convicting!

Regardless of the version, whenever I hear it quoted or see it referenced, I perk up because I know God has something to teach me. To be honest, these scriptural words shout my name – calling to me like no other chapter in every season of my life.

No matter where I go or what happens to me, it’s as if Romans 12 is a part of me. I know that is a crazy thought. I do.

But if we stop and think about it, it is not that farfetched because the Bible says in Genesis 1:27, “So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them.”

Genesis 2:7-8 adds,

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.

According to these passages, each of us was made in the image of God, from Adam all the way down to you and me to the babies being born right this moment. We were all made in His image.

And since we were made in His image, then, of course, God’s Word is a part of us. After all, John 1:1 says that it literally is Him: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

No wonder the Bible calls to me – and to you. It is God Himself calling and drawing us.

Now, lest we get too uppity, thinking how we were made in God’s image, these next verses humble us and put things in perspective quickly.

Genesis 2:9 explains, ^“The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.” Verse 19 adds, “Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky.”

Wow! We were made from dust, pure old, nasty dirt, and so was everything else on earth, including the trees and the animals.

But if every living thing on earth was made from the earth that God had created, what’s so different about humans?

I think two important differences are found right there in these same verses from the first two chapters of the Bible.

First, as we read earlier in Genesis 1:27, we were made in the image of God. So, we were designed from the very beginning to look like (and according to lots of other scriptures, act like) God our Father.

Secondly, Chapter 2, Verse 7 describes how God blew His very own breath into Adam’s clay body, and at that moment, the first man became a living, breathing child of God. That one breath forever separated us from the other animals and plants He created. It set us apart instantly.

To put it plainly, our earthly father was made in the image of our heavenly Father. And in turn, we were all created by that one single breath of God; even Eve’s life was made possible because of the very breath of God blown into the nostrils of Adam.

One breath; one body. But out of that one breath-filled body came generations upon generations of bodies, including yours and mine.

As I studied this mind-boggling thought, I did some additional research and read another amazing fact. Did you know that some scientists found that the genetic difference between any two random people groups on earth is only one percent?

How is that possible?

After thousands of years and billions of people in every color, shape, and size from every part of this dirt-filled earth, how can we all possibly be that closely related genetically?

You and I know how.

With that one breath of God breathed into Adam’s lifeless, clay body, we were forever connected to each other and to our Creator. We would not be alive and breathing without that original breath; we all have the breath of God.

From our first crying breath to our first waking this morning to the last gasping breath we will take before we die, each breath of life is a breath from God.

But again, unless we get prideful, we had absolutely no control or choice in our first breath.

Our breath is His breath. It was and is a gift from God.

His precious blood was a gift too, one that provided a way for us to become part of His body. But we must choose to become a part of His body of believers.

Even before Jesus willingly gave His lifeblood for us on Calvary, at the Last Supper, He told the disciples in Luke 22, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me,” and “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

Just think! Before Golgotha, even all the way back to Adam, God was thinking of us, calling to us. He had a plan and a purpose for each of us to become a part of His very own body.

How amazing! The One who breathed life into Adam and gave us our very first breath also offers us eternal, everlasting life through the blood of his only begotten Son.

And it all started with one breath.

So, of course, it is only reasonable that each of us should bring that gift of life and breath, offering it as a living sacrifice in service to the Author and Giver of our first breath of life.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, (Romans 12:1, KJV).