I love this day in the church year. The day we smudge ourselves with ash and grace. The day we remember all the ways we're off track. The day that it's ok to be in the desert or the darkness and to know that the journey ahead is long. And the day we ask God to walk with us through it.
During our small service this evening, we sang without accompaniment and prayed and confessed, and we moved around to several quiet stations to reflect. I had the privilege of doing the stations with Raymond, a 3rd grader who has just begun to come to church with his family. Though he certainly did not understand all the words printed on each station's reflection card, he really seemed to get what we were doing. When invited to select a small stone and write a word expressing who God is to him on the stone, he penned "friend" and slipped the stone into his pocket. I said, "Just in case you ever forget it..." When invited to reflect on how he'd feel if he were watching his friend and teacher suffering from a distance, he wrote on the butcher paper, "sad." When invited to think of something he could do during these coming weeks to grow closer to or learn more about God, he wrote on his notecard, "read books." When I asked him what kinds of books, he paused, then replied, "mysteries." Maybe he did really get it.
Just before we all left, Raymond asked, "Is my ash rubbing off?" "Nope," I said, "not at all. Is mine?" "Nope." Then he reminded me that I'd told him I'd give him a Bible to take home since he didn't have one.
It sounds a bit cliche to talk about seeing life through the eyes of a child, but, tonight, just for a moment, I think I really got it.
1 comment:
Thanks for this post, friends. I wasn't able to get to an Ash Wednesday service this week, but now I feel like I have! Vince and I are heading to Seattle in April to visit my sister and her fam. Can't wait to be in the northwest.
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