The Dust of Life
In a lifetime of Ash Wednesdays which begin yet another Lent, here are some of my one-liner learnings: Ashes remind us, with a shock, that we are God's creation, made for God, and not the other way around. Ashes remind us of the brevity of the gift of life, and the grace of eternal life in the heart of God. Ashes remind us that we are born to live, really live, before we die. Ashes remind us of a resolve to a Lent, and a lifetime, of a more authentic relationship with Jesus the Christ. For reasons like these it does not occur to us that we participate in a "strange" custom of ashes and dust. To the contrary. With hearts full of awe, we seek gold and God in the dust.

--from the essay "Absurd and Awe-full Ashes"
by the Rev. Dr. Douglass M. Bailey

Read the essay in its entirety.