 |
 |
||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||
 |
|
"Remember that you are dust . . ." Daniel Kempin
Daniel Kempin has not set their biography yet
User is currently offline
Today is Ash Wednesday. Whether it has been a part of your Christian practice or not, the imagery is simple enough: Ashes.
Ashes are what is left of a fire. Ashes are the remnant of what once was strong or useful. The next time you are camping or using a fireplace, notice how much work it is to carry the solid, strong logs of firewood. Take a moment to count the rings and consider how many years it took for the tree to grow. And then see how little remains in the ash pile. Strong, solid wood is reduced to a small pile of dust.
Therein is the devotion for today. That's it. Ashes. Dust. What will remain of our bodies in a hundred years? dust. What will eventually remain of our homes and our handyman projects and our possessions? Ashes. Or perhaps landfill, but you get the point. The things of this world will not last. We will not last. It is because we are under the curse. We are dust, and to dust we shall return.
But we are not without hope. Ash Wednesday is not a morbid remembrance of mortality. It is a sobering dose of perspective. We remember what will not last (mostly because those are the things that tend to dominate our lives), and we remember what WILL last. The wages of sin is death. True enough. Look around and you will see plenty of sobering evidence. But the gift of God is eternal life.
The gift of God is eternal life.
The gift of God. . . is. . . eternal. . . life.
Through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thanks be to God!
Prayer: Lord, grant me a true perspective to recognize that which will last and that which will not. Teach me to treasure every day of life that you grant me here with friends and loved ones, and use me for the work of your kingdom so that my friends and loved ones might not perish along with the things of this world, but inherit eternal life through the promise of Jesus Christ. Amen
|
 |
||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
It's pleasant to remember that God will provide us (the faithful) with perfect eternal bodies on the last day. It seems appropriate that the imperfect, cursed, body should return to the dust from whence it came, and perish for all eternity with the heavens and earth corrupted by sin.