Today, we begin these 40 days, from Ash Wednesday to Easter, excepting Sundays which are little feast days. In the Bible, 40 is a special number, a time of transformation. Remember the time it took God to wash the earth clean in the flood, 40 days. Or the time it took the Israelite slaves to traverse the wilderness between slavery in Egypt to bold entry into the Promise Land, 40 years. Or the time Jesus spent in the wilderness after his baptism before entering into his world transforming ministry, 40 days.
Today, I am wondering what God will do with me, what God will do with us in these 40 days. What will we leave behind? What new life will we enter into? What will be washed away? What will be born from the freshly flooded soil? What temptations will we be called upon to resist? What life transforming ministry will we enter into?
Today, Ash Wednesday, we will be marked with ashes and invited to remember, "from dust we were made and to dust we will return." (Genesis 3:19) But, as one of the best books on death for children, Lifetimes, by Brian Mellonie says, "and there is living in between."
I am reminded of God, creating Adam (Genesis 2:7). God reached down into the mud and fashioned a person, with legs for walking, eyes for seeing, a mouth for tasting and talking and kissing, ears for listening, hands for creating and holding. Then God, breathed God's own breath into the lifeless form. As I hear those words tonight, "from dust you were created and to dust you will return," I will remember, that without the breath of God, that is all I am... dust. As I look at my reflection in the mirror and see the cross mark the ashes make on my head, I will thank God, for the everlasting life I have in Jesus.
In these 40 days of Lent, let us slow down to feel the hands that gently form us, let us notice the breath within us, let us look toward the cross that saves us.
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