Dust to Dust

At the start of Lent, on Ash Wednesday, some Christians take part in a ceremony in which Ash is used to mark a Cross on their forehead.

It can remind us that we are nothing compared with God.
It can remind us that our body is made from the dust of the Earth and that one day it will return to dust.

When the disciples went to the tomb to honour the body of Jesus, it was gone.
Later they met Jesus. They spoke and ate with him. He was clothed in his new resurrection body.

Psalm 90 reminds us that our time on Earth can be short.
A thousand years of our time are to God like one day, like yesterday - already gone, like a short hour to the watchman in the night.

Typically we might live as long as 70 years, or maybe even 80 years.
But also, life can be cut short unexpectedly.

The psalmist asks God to teach us how short our life is so that we might become wise. He asks that God would fill us with his constant love, so that we might sing and be glad all our life.

O Lord, you have always been our home.
Before you created the hills, the world, the universe, you were eternally God, and you will be God for ever.