…then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.  Genesis 2:7

Today is Ash Wednesday which is the start of Lent, the forty days before Easter when Christians  traditionally prepare their hearts and minds  for Christ’s death and Resurrection.  The forty day period recalls Jesus’ forty days in the desert when he was a tempted by Satan  just as we all are.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet he did not sin. Hebrews 4:15

 Lent is intended to be a season of repentance, prayer, self denial, mortification of the flesh (fasting) and what was once called “alms giving” to the poor.  It is a time for personal spiritual reflection and  seekig  God  more  seriously and intentionally than one does every day.  It may have originated as early as 325 with the Council of Nicea but certainly was already a part of very early Christian  practices.

On Ash Wednesday many people, particularly Catholics, attend church to receive a dab of cross shaped ashes on their foreheads.  (I just read that the Vatican has advised that ashes  be sprinkled on top of the head instead of smudged directly because of Covid.) When I was a girl, after confession the night before, I’d go with my parents for my dose of ashes and I can still remember the priest intoning in Latin: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”  I wouldn’t wash my forehead for days!

Remember that you are dust. To dust you shall return.  What a sobering  description of humanity  without Jesus. Dust  returning to dust; ashes to ashes. Nothing but nothing remains. In fact it is the pithiest summation of Genesis 2:7 through Genesis 3: 19.  God created man  in His image and likeness   from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him. He created man to glorify Him as His special  creation, to be with Him, to know and love Him directly.  We were meant to be more than the physical matter we came out of.  Then came disobedience and the Fall of mankind.  God’s justice demanded the terrible  consequence.  We, the offspring of Adam,  would toil and sweat and finally, irrevocably  die.

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19

 However, God , our loving Father, did not abandon us . He knows  we are “with days like grass.”

…As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. Psalm 103:13-14

God  provided the Perfect One, Jesus, to atone for our  sins and restore  us in righteousness to Himself. It is Jesus and only Jesus whose sacrifice  on the cross can save our souls.  Jesus claimed  “No one can come to the Father except through Me.” There is no other way out of the miry clay or the road to damnation.

Ash Wednesday is the great equalizer for all men and women: rich and poor, famous and forgotten, courageous and cowardly, believers and scoffers, the wise and the foolish.   No one gets  born into  this planet on his own, we come from dust  and all are subject to the grave. Life which comes from God leaves by God’s will. I believe that God spoke in the beginning to give life. I accept by faith that Jesus the Word came to redeem life here on earth and  eternally.  I seek the Holy Spirit to guide me in the journey home.  Thus, Ash Wednesday  points to the hope we  have in Jesus, in the cross,  in the empty tomb and to every promise the Lord has given. Without that  hope Ash Wednesday becomes meaningless,  the ashes on foreheads a foolish sign and we are no closer to salvation than the pagans.