Life is but a breath...
Lord,
Everyone is but a breath…
My life is nothing but a breath in the span of eternity and creation.
Every breath, every moment, is on lone to me by You. I am merely a caretaker of the body and things You have given me because every breath comes from You.
Thousands of years have gone by since the dawn of creation. Since the moment You first breathed life into Adam’s lungs. His body was lifeless until Your breath of Life filled his nostrils inflating his lungs, bursting his life onto the scene.
What was that moment like? Did Adam gasp as if coming out of the water? Or like an infant emerging from their mother’s womb? Or was it a gentle awakening? Like one waking from a nap?
When life is looked at as but a breath, it can sound meaningless and depressing. It can sound purposeless. Empty. From the first inhale to the last exhale. What are we filling each breath with? Our own pleasures? Our own desires?
People run in exhaustion trying to fill every breath with meaning and purpose. But apart from You, every inhale is void of true life and every exhale is but a sigh. Apart from You, every breath is meaningless. It is void of life.
You created us to use every breath for Your glory. To bring You praise and worship. Sadly, we fail time after time. Yet there You are, still filling our lungs full of air. Air to breath. To live. To enjoy. But not for our own pleasure and purposes. You give us breath to use for Your glory and not our own. Patiently filling the lungs of so many to bring forth Your praise. And when we do, life explodes and has meaning and every breath has a purpose.
What would this world look like if every breath was breathed and exhaled for You? If every breath was filled with Your goodness, righteousness, and exhaled as Your holiness? What if every breath was breathed as if it was our last, knowing that it was done for Your glory?
Lord, what are human beings that You care for them, mere mortals that You think of them. They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.
Yet You do care for us. You do think of us. Every day. All day. Without ceasing. So much so that You died for us. You gave us breath in our lungs to know You, to live for You. And in knowing You it gives purpose to every breath. It gives purpose to every inhale. And life everlasting at the final exhale.
“You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.”
Psalm 39:5
“Lord, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.”
Psalm 144:3-4
