As a young teenager, I watched my Roman Catholic friends with envy.  On Ash Wednesday they came to school with a cross of ashes marked on their foreheads.  At that time Lutherans didn’t do such things, and it seemed so special.  One year I accompanied a Roman Catholic friend to church after school.  With handkerchiefs on our heads, we got in line and received the mark of ashes from the priest.  I didn’t understand exactly what it meant, but I liked it.   I’m sure I must have carefully removed that mark before going home to my very Lutheran parents.

Now I don’t have to sneak in line for ashes.   Tonight, Pastor will welcome us to come forward, where we will hear “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”   Those are very humbling words, there’s no room for pride on Ash Wednesday.   We remember God telling Adam, that he had been formed from the “dust of the earth” until God breathed his own “breath of life” into him.  We are also reminded that we shall truly return to dust.   Getting right to the point, our bodies will fail and die.  Our earthly goods are destined to be lost, just as the great empires of the past have crumbled.  To dust we shall return.

As Lent begins, it’s an invitation to repent.  It’s an invitation to see ourselves as dust again, to detach ourselves from the things of this world, and to be open to being filled with God’s “breath of life.”   What a wonderful gift it is, coming from our God whose love is unconditional.

I hope you’ll enjoy this song written by Gerard and Mary Chiusano, especially for Ash Wednesday, “With These Ashes.”

Judy