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Personal blog of christian
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Ashes For Beauty“When is Easter this year?” Mom asked me yesterday. “Your sister Mary is already planning her menu.” I figured I’d throw a little math test Mom’s way, just to see if two plus two still equals five. “Well, Mom, Lent is the forty days leading up to Easter, right?” “That sounds right, I guess.” “And last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, so that means—” “We’ve already had Ash Wednesday?” “Mom, we got ashes together when you were in the hospital, just like we did last year when you were in the hospital.” “I don’t remember.” That’s the thing about ashes, isn’t it? We’re scared of them, really, maybe even a bit superstitious. We put them out of our minds as soon as we submit our foreheads to the sign of the cross, hoping against hope that we haven’t somehow hastened our own return to dust. “Thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.” As the day of ashes wears on, we glance in the mirror once or twice and wonder if we should cleanse ourselves of the smudgy mark of faith that stopped looking like a clear statement of belief hours ago. We stop remembering why remembering the fragility of our mortal state is so essential to apprehending the grace of Jesus to carry on. I don’t remember, either, Mom. After a lifetime of ashes, how quickly I forget. Even so, something happened to us in those hospital rooms, something stronger than death and as eternal as love. We’ve gone down to the grave together twice now, Mom, and we know something of the power of His resurrection that we couldn’t have known otherwise. Beauty for ashes, ashes for beauty. Till the end of our days on earth, when the ashes forever blow away.
Posted by Katy on 03/08/06 at 09:43 AM
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