Today on Ash Wednesday, we hear these words spoken over us as we receive ashes on our foreheads: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). It is a stark reminder to us that we are mortal and our time on this earth is finite. There is nothing that can change that.
But something that we need to remember on this day and throughout Lent is this quote: “Remember that you are God’s, and to God you will return” (Hiortdahl, Brian, “A Day to Remember.” Living Lutheran, January/February 2023, 13). Yes, we are mortal, but we belong to God, so our destiny is not finite death in dust, but everlasting life in and with him through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Lent then becomes for us a dual focus: on our limited human condition because of sin and on the unlimited love of God to save us from that state that we might receive limitless life through the death and resurrection of his Son.
We think of Lent so often as a somber time, and it is, in part, but as a whole it is an opportunity to remember where we have been in sin and confess that shortfall, and then look forward in joy to where we are going because of the forgiveness that transforms our lowly lives into glorious examples of our God at work.