The Making of Beautiful Things (Ash Wednesday Meditation)

When I was a kid my grandmother’s house was struck by lighting. It went up in flames. It was completely destroyed. Clothes, furniture, and memories left in ashes. I remember standing in the front yard watching as the last embers faded and the adults savaged through the rubble digging for anything worth saving. Every time I get a scent of a fire my mind rushes back to that moment. The moment when it looked that all was lost.

Ashes are what are left after destruction. After chaos or catastrophe, ashes are what remain. When the character Job of the Old Testament loses everything – his home, his family – he sits among the ashes. When the psalmist is being overtaken by his enemies, he declares, “I eat ashes like bread, and mingle my tears with my drink” (Psalm 102:9). The prophet Jeremiah tells the people to “roll in ashes” because the destroyer is on their doorstep (Jeremiah 6:26). Ashes are what are left when all is gone.

Everyone has ashes. Everyone has something that has fallen apart. Cars breakdown. Paint flakes off. Skin wrinkles. Hearts fail. We all have something that has turned or is turning into ashes. Hopes and dreams left in rubble. Jobs are lost. Homes are foreclosed. Relationships are broken apart. There it all lays – our sins, our failures, our disappointments – in a pile of ashes. What does your pile look like today?

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lent Season. This is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays, which is a season of preparation for Easter celebration. Early on it had become the custom of ancient Christians to have a season of spiritual readiness before the Easter celebration. It was during this season that converts to the faith were prepared for baptism. It was also a time for those who had wandered away from the faith to be received back into the community through repentance and forgiveness. The season of Lent invites us to renew our faith and live in the mercy and forgiveness that is found in Jesus Christ. We look forward to resurrection. It is a time of year that prepares us for new life.

Ashes are seen by many as the end. But in the church we see them as the beginning. They begin a season that moves us through reflection and repentance into joy and resurrection. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent where we are being invited to turn back to God, to be reconciled with one another, and to live in peace. We are invited to see the ashes as the beginning of new life. We believe beautiful things can truly come out of the ashes.

The prophet Isaiah proclaimed in the good news of God’s arrival, “a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit” (Isaiah 61:3). It is through the ashes that we will be called, “oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory” (Isaiah 61:3).

The Apostle Paul tells that in Christ, “there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new” (2 Cor. 5:17)! The whole world is being made new by the cross and resurrection. Because of what God is doing through Christ Jesus, there is the possibility of reconciliation with all that is broken. Because of new creation, we are made to be agents of reconciliation. We are called to speak hope to the hopeless, joy to the brokenhearted, and life into death. The cross on the forehead reminds us that we have been reconciled unto God through Christ. The mark of the cross sets us a part as ambassadors of reconciliation.

Where in the midst of ashes is God calling you to speak a word of life? Where in the midst of destruction is God calling you to be an agent of change? Where among the ashes of sin, brokenness, and death is God calling you to announce, “Now is the time to lay down your weapons of hatred, hurt, and anger. Now is the time to turn back to God. Today is your salvation day!”

Today we may begin our Lent journey toward new life by sitting among ashes but when we trust in God we can be assured that even in this place resurrection can happen. God really can make beautiful things out of the ashes.

(originally posted at www.jameyprickett.com)

(Join us for Ash Wednesday Service at Liberty Hill UMC in Canton, GA on Wednesday, Feb. 18 @ 7:00P.M. For more information email jamey@libertyhillumc.org)