Child of Dust

This song is very clearly God speaking in regards to Adam. The simple fact that the song title is "Child of Dust" and God created Adam from the dust of the Earth. Gen. 2:7 Says "the Lord God formed the man from the dust..." Enough said Lol considering the vast number of biblical references and religious undertones in other Thrice lyrics. But then the lines

"All Eden's weath arrayed before your eyes; I fathomed not you wanted to escape. And though I only ever gave you love, like every child you’ve chosen to rebel;"

perfectly portray the downfall of man in the Garden of Eden. God set Adam and Eve in this wonderful, glorious place and set before them only one simple instruction: not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil...and even though God only ever gave them love, they chose to rebel.

The rest of the song gets a little hazy as far as my interpretation goes, but I think the lines

"uprooted flowers and filled the holes with blood; ask for not whom they toll the solemn bells"

represent the sins and fall of the modern world as well. Uprooting the "flowers", or the gifts that God originally blessed us with, we attemped to fill the empty holes we left behind with the blood, greed and corruption of the modern world. And we often don't care who we leave in our wake, and this point is emphasised in other Thrice songs such as "Cold Cash and Colder Hearts" and "The Sky is Falling".

I think the last half of the song obviously talks about death.

"A child of dust to mother now return; for every seed must die before it grows. and though above the world may toil and turn, no prying spade will find you here below. Now safe beneath their wisdom and their feet, Here i will teach you truly how to sleep."

The part about the seed dying before it grows I think could sort of mean that this life pales in comparison the the future we have in Heaven.
And when the world toils and turns in the wake of Christ's return, we will not be anywhere to be found, because we will have been lifted up to Heaven? Anyways thats my two cents. Even if you disagree, there is no doubt that Thrice has done it again with the new alchemy index. God bless Dustin Kensrue!

And for those who thought it portrayed the parable of the prodigal son, it does share many of the same features but I dont think that was the intent of the song, simply due to the fact that it mentions the Garden of Eden and again, the title " Child of Dust". However, take a look at "Please Come Home" by Dustin. There is no doubt about that one =)