I decided to read it again at our main service this evening; we're told to come with the faith of a child and sometimes we need to hear something very simply put.
Ash Wednesday isn’t about thinking of the things we’ve done wrong so we can be reminded that we’re bad people; it’s remembering that God created us from goodness for goodness.
And we get to ask the question why; why, when we’re created good do we sometimes not act kindly, or why do we create space in the world for unkindness to happen?
Today isn’t about thinking that one day we’ll die so that we can be sad; Knowing we will die should help us to see how we should live now.
But we don’t remember our choices and our deaths on our own; we use this day to remember together, as a community, because we don’t live our lives alone, we live our lives together.
And today we apologise together for all those times we chose something that wasn’t loving, that wasn’t kind, and for when we forgot that we aren’t alone; when we forgot that not only do we belong to each other but to God.
Today we recognise together our good and bad choices. We recognise that like God’s wonderful creations the plants and trees we’re capable of amazing beauty if we choose to live lives based in love. Like holy soil nurturing the things which grow in it, we grow in love.
Lent begins today. 40 days and 40 nights to take us up until Easter. 40 days and 40 nights where we think about the best way to live in the world, the best way to use our wonderful gift of a life.
Let’s just take a moment, a tiny snapshot of time, to stop, to remember and to think of our amazing capacity to love and to live kind, beautiful, flourishing lives, lives which mirror the love God has for us.
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