Will dirt have the final word?

On Ash Wednesday, I am faced with the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” while a black cross of ash is marked on my forehead and loose flecks of dirt fall onto my eyelashes. 

I also hear, after confessing my sins side by side with my brothers and sisters in Christ: “If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1-2)

Before I leave with the cross of ash marking my head and sobering sight of the same cross on the heads of each one of my children, I hear, “The body of Jesus broken for you, because of his great love for you,” and “The blood of Jesus, the cup of salvation,” as we receive the bread and wine.

The fact is, I am limited, and not just in a pesky I-can’t-humanly-accomplish-everything-on-my-to-do-list kind of way, but in a “My-sin-is-ever-before-me” (Ps. 51) and I-cannot-sustain-and-preserve-my-own-life kind of way. These inherent limitations, they will literally be the death of me. 

Yet this day of ash and repentance and bread and wine speaks to my soul that though I am fatally limited, I am also infinitely loved. And so I bear the ashy cross on my head in humility and sorrow but also in hope, for it is not the dirt that will have the final word, but the precious blood of Christ.

---

Note: I plan to be a little more scarce around social media in the weeks leading up to Easter, but I do still plan to write. I’ll be sharing a (mercifully short) reflection each week during that time (on this blog, but probably not social media), so be sure to head to my home page to sign up for the email list, if you are so inclined. :)