Welcome to the day's encouragement from our daily bread.

I'm Arthur Jackson, and I've titled today's devotional reading, Feeling Dusty.

When Warren mentioned during our weekly ministry team call that he was feeling dusty, I sensed that this was his way of referencing the physical challenges associated with aging and ill health. For Warren and his wife, both in their late 60s, 2020 included doctors' visits, surgical procedures, and the rearranging of their home to accommodate

in-home care. They were on the other side of the prime of life and they were feeling it.

One doesn't have to live long before sensing our inadequacies, imperfections, and weaknesses, physically,

intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

God and the person of His Son, Jesus, stepped into our fallen world and cares for those who

experience the liabilities of human existence.

Furthermore, David wrote in Psalm 103, He knows how we are formed.

He remembers that we are dust.

The term dust takes us back to Genesis 2, where it reads, 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. Are you feeling dusty these days? Welcome to the realities of earthly living. Remember, however,

that when we feel most vulnerable, we're not left alone. Our compassion God knows and remembers.

He demonstrated his love to us by sending his son to provide forgiveness for earthly people

like you and me.

Whatever life may bring, may we trust in him.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Psalm 103,

verses 13 through 19.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.

For he knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like

grass. They flourish like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone,

...