Breath

“the Lord God formed a man’s body

from the dust of the ground

and breathed into it the breath of life,

And the man became a living person.”  Genesis 2:7

Do you see it?  No, I mean literally, do you see “it”?  Look there, that little word “it,” tucked quietly in the middle of line three.  Little and inconspicuous.  But don’t miss it.  God breathed into it (the man’s body) and “it” THEN became a living person.

It is possible to have a body without the breath.  But the body cannot live without the breath of God.  The body remains lifeless until God’s breath enters us.  Breath brings life.  No breath, no life.

Is it possible that, when Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10), He was referring to the fact that life before and without the Breath of God, is not really living at all?

God is a God of breathing our Source of in-spir-ation.  The root “spir” here is the same word the apostle John used when he said, ^”The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” (John 6:62). Very literally, then, His words are the breath we take in.  He breathed the world into being.  And He breathes life into us.  Until then we’re just corpses.  Organized dust. Form without function. Existing but not living.  Bodies without Breath.