Last week in the Okehampton Times, Rev Mike (Davies) spoke of the wonder of creation and the multitude of stars. I find it incredible they are mainly ‘dust’. This week I’m rudely bringing us all back down to earth with a bump, as we enter the season of Lent and reflect on our own human ‘dustiness’.  

We have some very poignant and ancient traditions in the Church of England and, generally speaking, certain rituals stick around for years because they ‘work’.  The ‘Imposition of Ashes’ ritual on Ash Wednesday is one of those. 

It begins by burning palm crosses from the previous year’s Palm Sunday, and mixing the ash with holy oil, into a fine paste. Then, on Ash Wednesday, those that would like to are anointed (blessed) with the sign of the cross made on their forehead, along with the words “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.  Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ”.  

So, what’s the point of it?  Well, think of those stars again and that we, too, are made up of the same “dust”.  The creation parables in Genesis speak of God forming the prototype human from the ‘dust’ or ‘clay’ of the earth, the androgynous adamah (hence the description adam), before that was divided to make Adam and Eve (named, this time)

So, on Ash Wednesday, we are taken back to our origins – we are mortal and made of dust.  So, how is hearing that we are ‘dust’ a good thing?  Well, it is incredibly freeing.  Sometimes, we need that space, as we have in Lent, to allow ourselves a time in the wilderness with Christ, feel the dust on our feet, from which we are made, and the dusty stars above, and it is then, in that knowledge of “remember that you are dust” we find our true selves and the freedom to be who we are called to be by a loving God who knows our innermost being.