Lent Photo-a-Day: Ash

Ashes. The gray dust of destruction, defeat and despair. Objects that seem so solid and so stable turn into fragile husks that are swept away in the wind.

But ashes also signal new beginnings. What used to exist becomes nourishment for what is yet to become. The ashes of a forest destroyed by wildfire serve as fertilizer for the new growth that bursts out of the soil. Our bodies return to ash or to dust, and become part of the soil that will provide food for new human lives. Dust to dust. Ashes to ashes. We return to the earth that gave birth to us.

Today, ashes serve as a reminder of the brevity of life and the inevitability of death. Yet they also serve to remind us that ashes are but one stage on the path to rebirth. Let the fire of faith serve to remake and refine us.