The Breath of Life

Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation, better known as CPR, dates to 1740 when the Paris Academy of Sciences officially recommended a mouth-to-mouth method of resuscitation for victims of drowning. But it did not gain popularity in the United States until endorsed by the military in 1957. In 1972, a man named Leonard Cobb began mass training efforts in Seattle, Wash., showing more than 100,000 people how to give the breath of life.

When God formed man from the very dust of the ground, He did something extraordinary. He breathed into Adam’s nostrils “the breath of life” (v. 7). It was God’s breath that transformed man into a “living being.” What an amazing gift God gave at that moment: the gift of life. As Acts 17:28 says, “For in him we live and move and have our being.”

The creation of human life was the finale of God’s creative work. He had formed the heavens and the earth “in all their vast array” (v. 1). His magnificent handiwork included the sun, moon, and stars. He had designed a multitude of living creatures and abundant foliage. But the creation of man and woman stands out among these creative acts as unique.

But the giving does not stop with life; God gives three additional gifts. First, Adam was given a vocation. He was placed in the Garden of Eden and given the task of caring for God’s creation and naming each animal (vv. 15, 19). Second, Adam was given provision (and a warning): while he was allowed to eat from any tree in the garden, there was one from which he should not eat (v. 17). And third, he was given a companion, Eve (v. 18). Adam recognized this extraordinary gift when he said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (v. 23).

Pray with Us

Include Dr. Bryan O’Neal in your prayers today. He serves as the VP and dean of Moody Bible Institute Distance Learning and as a professor of theology. May God provide him with insight and strength to handle the work set before him.

BY Jamie Janosz

Jamie Janosz serves as a content development manager for Moody Bible Institute. She writes monthly devotionals for Today in the Word and has published non-fiction essays with Christianity Today’s Her.meneutics blog. Recently Jamie wrote a book titled When Others Shuddered: Eight Women Who Refused to Give Up (Moody Publishers). Jamie studied theology and writing at Moody Bible Institute, Columbia College, and Illinois State University. She lives on the Atlantic coast of Florida with her husband, Milt, and daughter, Sabrina.