An insomniac's Psalm 103: Verse 14

"For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust."

At breakfast today I learned about porcelain from my British neighbor, whose father is passionate about the stuff. Porcelain, also knows as "china" after the country that originally produced it, is made of a clay mineral called "kaolinite," and I wonder how the first person discovered that it could be fired into something with qualities of translucence, low permeability, hardness, and beauty. Other elements in a porcelain product may include bone ash, feldspar, quartz, alabaster, petuntse, steatite, and other things I've never heard of, let alone used.

God has heard of and used them all. And if Fiona's father "remembers" what goes into the making of a porcelain dish, then God "remembers" what went into the making of us---"he remembers that we are dust." That's a relief to me. He did not fashion us and then launch into some other project and absentmindedly forget our heat and cold tolerances and "fatigue life," so that he put us under too much stress.

In freshman year of high school we were all scared kittens. When we became sophomores, it's amazing how we forgot how bad it is to be scared and persecuted by upper classmen. God doesn't forget.

Not long ago a football coach commanded sprints in 94 degree heat, with no drinking water, and a young man tragically died. That kind of miscalculation wouldn't happen with God because "he knows our frame" and exactly how high to turn up the heat to get the effect He wants. (Porcelain, by the way, happens to be highly resistant to thermal shock.)

Sometimes the heat is turned up pretty high, but God is always at the controls:

"For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance" (Psalm 66:10-12).

Sometimes he is pleased to ignore his own stress predictions manual and allows the application of external or internal pressures that exceed normal tolerance levels. That's when the Potter is most glorious, when by the uncommon intervention of his own Spirit, he causes his vessel to endure beyond all natural ability. Where our ability ends, His begins (2 Corinthians 1:9).

But God also knows us inside and out because he became one of us. Entering into the object you made, that's what I call "knowing"! When the principalities and powers pan the faces of the congregation of God as they stand together with uplifted hands of praise, there is Jesus' face in the midst of the crowd, locking arms, unashamed to call them brothers (Hebrews 2:11-12), able to sympathize with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15). I don't need to explain much: He was so exhausted He fell asleep in the bowels of a boat.

Sometimes I play the "dust" card with God. When I feel I can take no more heat, I say, "Lord, remember that I'm just dust." It feels good to remind Him, not that He has forgotten for a minute.

To read "Verse 15," click here.

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.