We come to Ash Wednesday, the First Day of Lent. We come with a sense of humility (most of our English words that begin with "hum-" are from the Greek/Latin root for "dirt") and we hear and say that line from Scripture "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return." But if we think about it for a moment, we can also approach the day with a renewed sense of wonder and awe when we think of the "dust" that composes our physical selves.
Those of us who are able to ponder the age of the universe realize that the physical matter we encounter today has been around a long time and has been used over and over again. Just as may of us who today try to trace our family trees hoping to find we're descended from ancestors of note, we should also pause and consider that some part of our flesh may once have been matter from the heart of an ancient star on the other side of the galaxy, or that our enzymes or the water in our cells was once part of the makeup of Leviathan or another of earth's ancient and fabled creatures. "We are stardust" is more than just a line in one of Joni Mitchell's songs.
But we teach that we are also the people of God--a God who loves and cares about us. We may, indeed, be stardust, but we are loved. Beloved, blessed dust. So we may come to this day with humility, wonder, and awe. We are dust--one with the universe--and to dust we shall return. And what then shall our dust become when our spirits are at home in God?
