I Thought Only Catholics Did That?

Letting someone put ASHES on my forehead?  Seriously?  I thought only Catholics did that?  And, I'm not a Catholic... I'm a Christian. 

Well now...  that's how I looked at it when I was a very young child... until my father, a Protestant minister & lover of Christ and humanity, actually heard me speak the words, "I'm not a Catholic... I'm a Christian."  He quickly made it very clear that the name I had claimed at a very young age, that of "Christian", was not a name of exclusion of believers in Christ, but a name of inclusion for all those who believed in Jesus as Lord & Savior. I'm so glad my dad helped me to see that at a young age - just one of the ways that man blessed my life!  

Today is Ash Wednesday and, as Kimberly Majeski states in her blog post, Ash Wednesday, "This is the day when believers across the globe gather to receive ashes on their foreheads to remind us that we are all dust." 

We have all heard the saying, "Ashes to ashes; dust to dust."  We come from dust; we return to dust.  The term 'Ashes to ashes' comes from the Anglican Burial Service. A portion of that service being taken from the text:

By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return."  Genesis 3:19

So today, I acknowledge that...

I am made of dust...

YET, part of a glorious eternal plan!