Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday.

On this midweek day, in many parts of the world, Christians of all denominations are celebrating, honouring and marking the beginning of Lent in many different ways. In the island where I live, I can safely say that all the Christian denominations have at least one Church service today, to mark the beginning of Lent. Services and activities take different forms, some with interesting rituals and rites which are visually noticeable, while others are solemn and deeply moving, noticeable only in the heart.

However your Ash Wednesday has been or will be, whether you attended a Church worship service or worship services, or spent special alone time with your Lord,  I invite you to share this time with me. I have been led to look carefully at how ashes are made and what words of wisdom have been offered to us.  

I am certain, we will all agree that ashes are the residue or result of burning. Ashes come from certain substances and materials which have been burnt up. So here are some interesting facts about ashes, which give fuller and more ready meaning and manner to Ash Wednesday.

Ashes are the result of burning. Faith and faith alone allows us to believe and know that we have come to this day with the ashes of the burning of our displeasing ways before God.  God, the Holy Ghost, does this burning in us, as we note fully in Isaiah 1: 25. I will turn my hands against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your iniquities. 

Now, we can say like Charles Wesley,

Oh, that in me the sacred fire might now begin to glow;

Burn up the dross of base desire and make the mountains flow.

Ashes received from burning, never ever carry the same weight or occupy the same space as before. In fact, the quantity of true ashes of a human, do not even fill up the palm of the hand. Belief, unmoveable belief in the Son of God, allows us to speak and live the philosophy of John the Baptist. He made it quite plain that He must become greater and I must become less. John 3: 30. Surely, when the self is denied, burnt to ashes as it were; when we come to know and receive Jesus, then He will increase and there will be less and less of us. Then, like Theodore Monod, today we have come to a place where we too can confess. 

Day by day His tender mercy,

Healing, helping, full and free,

Sweet and strong, and ah! So patient,

Brought me lower, while I whispered,

Less of self and more of Thee.

Ashes never carry the same colour as that which has been burnt. For example, the colour of a person before cremation does not affect the ashes in the least bit. Regardless of the colour of your life, meaning, how famous or infamous, rich or poor, guilty or innocent, wicked or good a person may have been, when the Convicting Holy Ghost brings one to ashes, nothing of that colour is seen. Reminds me of the parable Jesus told of a man whose colour was rich. He was blessed even more, when God gave him a bumper harvest. He began to think and talk like a fool. But God said to him, You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?  Luke 12: 20. Such utterly displeasing behaviour we do not want in us and like James Orr, we pray most sincerely.

Search me, O God, and know my heart today;

Try me, O saviour, know my thoughts, I pray.

See if there be some wicked way in me;

Cleanse me from ev’ry sin and set me free.

We thank God for Ash Wednesday. We thank Him that the ashes of all that He has burnt out in us, are there to remind us that we are free of them, and made new in spirit and in truth.