Ashes

The burnt bits of wood broke easily into ash
As I poked at the fire that blazed last night.
I remember the warmth...laughter...roasting marshmallows and watching the flames dance.
Now, no heat rose...no sound was heard...no sweet sugary item was founds...the flames had long since stopped to draw you in.

It is so easy to see ashes as a reminder of what was...
As what will never be again.
It is so easy to see ashes as a reminder of
brokenness...those atoms left over...as a negative remnant that is now useless.

What good can come of ashes??

Today, we take the palm branch from last year to burn on Ash Wednesday.
We take what has gone from green/growing/alive to now brown and brittle.
We take and burn the palm that was still drenched in "Hosannas" from last Palm Sunday.
We take and burn the palm that still has the DNA of the hands that held it.
We take and burn the palm to make something else.
The palm branch quickly is consumed and turned to ash.
We take the ash, trace the place where years ago a pastor made the sign of the cross on my forehead at baptism.
We take the ash as a reminder that from dust...soil and star dust...we are made. 
And one day to that same dust...above and below...we will return.
We take the ash that still hums with life...because energy is never destroyed...cannot so easily be discarded.
On our forehead we humbly bow to receive this gift.
The gift of interconnectedness to all creation.
The gift of God's grace that meets us not just when our halos shine brightly.
The gift of God who says, "Even in the ash, I am there."

On Ash Wednesday...we need not see this day as serious and somber...the start of drudgery of Lent.
On Ash Wednesday...we receive a symbol that forever changes the world...and us.
On Ash Wednesday...in a simple cross on our forehead...there is more than a trace of God's grace.

It is a blessing...that out of the ash of life...phoenixes still rise.
It is a blessing...that out of the ash of life...God still crafts and creates.
It is a blessing...that out of the ash of life...we still can sense the sacred.

May that blessing hover and hang around your life during this holy season of Lent.

Amen ~~