Lent Reflections - Ash Wednesday

...it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Hebrews 9:27-28

Additional Reading: Luke 12:16-21

Ash Wednesday is the first day of the Lenten season and begins with us remembering our own mortality that one day we will all die. Fun stuff. Allrighty then, got this devotional guide off to a good start, huh!?

Followers of Jesus all over the world will be observing this day, in various ways with various traditions. So, even though it's not something a lot of us may have thought about, perhaps there is something to be learned from this focus on our mortality. To be preoccupied with death is morbid, but to take death seriously is a mark of wisdom. The important question is how we will live between our living of today and our dying of tomorrow. It's a choice of great consequence and significant value.

One of the traditions of Lent is a powerful symbol that reminds us of our human nature, that is, we are created beings, mortal beings, and shape-able beings. Yes, all that can come from a little ash on the forehead!

In churches that traditionally celebrate Lent, the ashes for Ash Wednesday are sometimes the result of burning the palm branches from the past year's Palm Sunday service. And in the tradition, or "liturgy," the worship leader places a cross of ashes on each person's forehead and pronounces, "from dust you were created and to dust you will return." This is a visual symbol of our being "created." We must be reminded that we are the creation belonging to a much greater Creator! The ashes and the Scriptural reference from the book of Job is also a reminder of our mortality we will all be ash again one day.

There is another way in which the ash can be a helpful symbol. When the ash is mixed with olive oil, as is often done, the dirt becomes like clay. Like clay in a potter's hands, we are mold-able, shape-able creatures. It is God's design that we not stay the same, but continually experience his transformation. So, I'm reminded that I'm like clay in the hands of not just a potter, but an amazing Artist, who has an awesome design for each and every pot he creates. We are dust, yes, but the cool thing is we are God's dust! And that makes us a masterpiece!

Prayer: Father, help me to appreciate how much I matter to you. Let this growing understanding and experience of your love bring me closer to you so that all my choices will help me to become the person you have created me to be. Help me to realize that your dream for me can be trusted, that you can be trusted because you love me.