“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

It’s Ash Wednesday today, which is the start of the Lenten season of the church. Most people will probably will post or repost things about what Lent means and why we give things up (which I already have… Sorry), but I want to take a different approach. I like different. I’m different and like change, but that’s another story. What does it mean from dust you are to dust you shall return? I view this as one of the best Law/Gospel messages anyone could ever hear.

            Think about dust, or ashes. It is dirty and messy and gets all over everything right? Nobody can get away from dust because we are part of the reason it is there. Our dead skin cells and such. It even clogs things up and causes things not to work correctly. That is exactly like our sins. They are dirty and messy. They get all over everything and can screw things to the point they don’t work. Nobody can get away from them, it is just a matter of whether you believe they are sins or not. But then let’s think about dust again. When God created the world He made everything perfect. There was nothing wrong with it. He then took some of that perfect dust and made man. A little later God realized that there was no suitable partner for Adam, and created Eve from one of Adam’s ribs which originally was made from, you guessed it, perfect dust. Creation was perfect at that point. There was no sin or pain, war or destruction. It was perfect. And to that perfect dust we will return. Jesus will come again to claim the living and the dead. To remind us that we have been washed clean of our messy, dirty, sin infested lives and we were made perfect. Nothing keeping us from enjoy that perfect dust and perfect world any longer.

Question for Reflection: What does dust to dust mean to you?

“Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection into eternal life.” –Book of Common Prayer