My fingers
are black and oily from preparing the ashes for our Ash Wednesday service. A
dark shirt is the attire for that day, with the mood set to match the theme -
recognizing our mortality. We are human beings - amazing dreamers, but finite;
brilliant thinkers, but selfish; independent, but creatures who exist because
we have a maker.
We are dust
in our origins, before God breathed into the heap that became Adam. We will be
dust again, some time after that breath departs.
Speaking of
breath, the outdoor temperature still allows you to exhale and see it. Look
again, and you'll see a beginning and an end to it. The cloud goes out only a
few feet from your face before disappearing. Remembering your mortality isn't
supposed to be morbid...but, it should redirect your thoughts and your ego back
to the One who was, who is, and who will be.
We mark
ourselves with a cross, but the work of the cross has already been done. Jesus
Christ died, that we might live - undoing the natural order of all created
things. Those ashes and your breath are only part of the story. By the time
this Lenten season is over, we'll be celebrating the resurrection of the body,
not the destruction of it...and, we'll be enjoying the Spirit, the breath of God
that causes dead and dusty things to come alive!
Today, the
air is still chilly, and the snow is still mostly white with a fresh dusting.
You will still drive through drifts and skid across patches of ice, but when
you look up you'll see the sun...and, you'll remember that this is not all
there is. The earthly, mortal season has an end...but, it gives way to one more
glorious, and eternal.
