Day 2: Death draws near

Last night,  Eddie came out of the shower and asked point blank - what happens when we die? We had a long conversation about faith and God and life and death that I couldn't possibly summarize if I tried.  The kid is deep. 

Dust to dust.  Ashes to ashes. 

From dust you came and to dust you shall return. 

Ash Wednesday is the day of the year I wrestle with my mortality.  And so, it surprised me a little for Eddie to pop up with questions about faith and death as I was finishing my last post and getting my soul ready to start Lent. But,  it was decidedly of the season and the other kids quickly joined in adding ideas and insights. So,  I took the moment and I rocked in a chair and we all talked for a long time like we were sitting around a campfire. 

It was a sacred moment. 

Today,  my friend sent me a post from one of my favorite pastors, Nadia Bolz-weber that says this

"Here’s my image of Ash Wednesday: If our lives were a long piece of  fabric with our baptism on one end and our funeral on another, and we don’t know the distance between the two, then Ash Wednesday is a time when that fabric is pinched in the middle and the ends are held up so that our baptism in the past and our funeral in the future meet. The water and words from our baptism plus the earth and words from our funerals have come from the past and future to meet us in the present. And in that meeting we are reminded of the promises of  God: That we are God’s, that there is no sin, no darkness, and yes, no grave that God will not come to find us in and love us back to life."

I have never heard a better description of Ash Wednesday.  The solemness and unrelenting hope of this Lent season. 

Death is hard for me. Really hard. 

I squirm whenever I have to sit and soak in the hard truth that death is an inevitability for me and for everyone I love.  I hate that.  

But,  Ash Wednesday brings me back to the heart of faith.  Though I am dust and though I may return to dust,  I belong to God and there is nothing,  no place,  no thing that can separate me from the love of God. Ever.