An Ash Wednesday Meditation on Psalm 103:14-17
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Dear Friends:
The following words come from the meditation that Shelley, Mark and I wrote for our Ash Wednesday Meditation Service this past Wednesday. We share it here for all of us to remember and reflect upon as we move through the Lenten Season together.
14 For God knows how we were made;
he remembers that we are dust.
It’s the basic element of the universe. The carbon nature of our dustiness offered biblical authors a clear message. And their insights into the nature of the universe, it turns out, remain scientifically, biologically accurate: physically we are made primarily of dust, the same as the stars in the sky, the dirt of the field and the dust of the earth. This is what we are made of. And this is what we return to. This we are called to remember with the dust of Ash Wednesday,
15 As for mortals, their days are like grass;
they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
At least the grass and the flowers are alive. They, like every one of us, can look beautiful and reflect the glory of God … but only for a season. The wind blows, the sun bakes, the grass withers, the flower fades, the fragile petals fall to the ground. And according to this passage, the very earth where they once added color remembers it no more. Like the flowers of the field, we wither, fade … and die. This we are called to remember with the dust of Ash Wednesday.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
Physically, we are uncomfortably fragile and shockingly temporary in this life. Like dust of the earth, like flowers of the field, we live for a time, maybe thrive for a season, yet we cannot overcome our physical limitations.
We also live in the midst of a surprising mystery. Somehow within our vulnerabilities, the dustiness and fragility of being us, we have mingled within ourselves a surprising taste of the eternal.
The steadfast love of the Lord, woven in and among our dustiness, from everlasting unto everlasting … This, too, we are called to remember with the dust of Ash Wednesday.
May your day today reflect that mystical combination: a humble remembrance of your dustiness; the sacred embrace of God's holiness.
Love,
David, Shelley and Mark
David Jordan
Senior Pastor