For Saturday breakfast, I sometimes pick up two chicken-biscuits at the drive-through, which Sara Faye and I both enjoy with a cup of hot tea while reading the morning's Houston Chronicle. This weekend the paper featured an interesting group of 22 very ordinary people who were brought together by a common experience.

The group included three Hispanics, three African-Americans and 16 Anglos but their experience had nothing to do with their race. There were 13 men and nine women, clearly not united by gender. Nor were they bound together by age. Although their average age was 69, slightly past full retirement for "Boomers," four of these folks were younger than 50 and four were 80 or above.

These men and women presented a cross-section of occupations and interests. Some were "right-brain" people -- the visual sort who process information intuitively from the big picture down to the details. These included a graphic artist, an interior decorator, a pianist, and a lady who put on flower shows. Others were "left-brain" folks -- the verbal kind who think analytically from the details up to the big picture. Among these were an engineer, a geologist, an oilman and an annuitist.

Which side of your brain do you use more often? Here are fun tests to tell, both verbal and visual.)

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With all their obvious diversity, what did these 22 people in last Saturday's Houston Chronicle have in common? In essence, it was their humanity. They were all human beings, descendants of Adam. The word "adam" comes from adamah, the Hebrew word for "dirt." In the Bible, this same word refers both to the species (humankind, earthlings, mud-people) and, with reference to the Creation story, to the first individual of that sort whom God made.

As humans, these 22 men and women in my Saturday newspaper all were made from physical elements of the earth. So, of course, are we -- and all animal life on earth. These 22 people, like us and many other living creatures on the earth, were animated (thus the word "animal") by God's moment-to-moment gift of "breath of life" (wind, breath, spirit). Without that breath of life, like the 22 people in my Saturday's newspaper obituaries, we all die and return to dust (Psalm 104:20-29).

However, unlike other animals, we humans are made in God's image -- not that we have some special component but rather have a special relationship. For this reason, we can enjoy our Creator's company and praise him as long as we live (Psalm 104:30-34). And, because Jesus has defeated death and obtained immortality, we can look forward to the Resurrection. Then, from his divine memory-bank, God will recreate us in glorified personal wholeness to enjoy new heavens and new earth forever!

For more on this mortal life, click here.