Today is Ash Wednesday.  It marks the onset for Christians of the 40 days of Lent, a time of fasting and abstinence.  In the Old Testament ashes were found to have two purposes:  to be used as a sign of humility and mortality; and as a sign of sorrow and repentance for sin.  The ashes come from burning the palm branches used to celebrate Palm Sunday of the previous year; the cycle of life.  One of the major tenets of the Christian faith is living one’s life with humility and repentance.  For many Christians, it is an annual reminder of where our hearts should be in relation to God, and of the reason Jesus became our atonement.  With the imposition of ashes the priest says, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  Genesis 2:7 reads:

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

The same ground we stand upon our ancestors have trod.  We are of the earth.  And so the cycle continues.  The great Nelson Mandela, the first President of South Africa, said, “We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.”  I am striving to do better and to be better and I want to add more prayer in my life.  I will start by praying for anyone who is reading this.  For those observing, I hope you have a blessed Lenten season.