During the season of Lent we are called to remember Jesus’s time in the wilderness. Those 40 days when he wrestled with his call, when he wrestled with his place in this world, his place among God’s children, his place as a leader of God’s children. It was a time of introspection and struggle, and clarification.
When I think of the wilderness, I can’t think about it without thinking about dirt. How, in the midst of the wilderness, whether I am hiking, or camping, or simply having a picnic with my family, I always seem to get dirt underneath my fingernails, and dust and dirt in my shoes and socks, and by the end of the day there is a layer of dust that covers my clothes and my face. Dirt can get in the food we are eating, or ashes from the fire sometimes float up into the pan of food I’m cooking. It is inevitable. I’ve grown to expect it and accept it as part of the experience.
And then there is that wilderness that has absolutely nothing to do with location. The wilderness within ourselves. The wilderness that tests us, and challenges us, and sometimes makes us feel very alone. Even in this spiritual wilderness, there is dirt, and ick and dust that permeates every corner of our spirits.
But also In the wilderness, if we allow it, and are mindful of where we are, we are able to brush aside the other responsibilities in our lives and grow closer to God. Yes, the dirt, the dust, and the ashes have a way of drawing us closer to God and reuniting us with creation.
Ash Wednesday is about embracing the ashes. This day invites us to come back to the core of creation, the wonder and gift of life, the connection between ourselves, and others. We are called to come back to God and experience life in all its fullness.
We place ashes on our foreheads to remind us of our mortality. To remind us that we are made of the same matter as the dust of the earth. But also as reminder that we are connected-intricately connected to all that God has created-both within the physical world, and the spiritual world.
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, we are one – together and whole.