It's a time Christians stop and acknowledge our sin. The blackness of our condition and the reason Jesus Christ came to earth.
He lived the perfect life we could not.
He took on the consequences for our sin. All the way to dying for us on a cross.
Easter is the celebration of His victory over death as he rose from the grave.
All that starts here on Ash Wednesday.
We might have the shape of a cross made on the back of our hand or forehead representing the blackness of our sin and hear that we are, "dust and to dust we shall return." (Genesis 3:19)
In 42:6, Job talked about repenting in dust and ashes. We are dirt. Unable to redeem ourselves.
As a life - long Lutheran as a child and into my teens; it wasn't part of the tradition at the church I attended to offer the imposition of ashes.
I think the first time I really noticed it was while working as an intern at the Iowa Legislature and noticing lawmakers and others walking around with little black crosses on their foreheads.
In my experience that was considered kind of a "Catholic" thing and not something our church did. It wasn't until my late 20s or early 30s that I was in a church where a pastor offered the little black cross during worship on Ash Wednesday.
At Lutheran High School, the day began with a worship service in the Auditorium. A couple of hours later I might absentmindedly scratch or brush my forehead and that little cross became a smudge of black.
Interestingly, the ashes are sometime purchased or made by burning the dried palm leaves from the prior year's Palm Sunday celebration. Those ashes are mixed with some water, and that is the black soot used to draw the small cross.The imposition of ashes is an optional observance, but one that can provide an opportunity of repentance and spiritual renewal within the framework of confession and absolution.
Ash Wednesday is more than the end of Mardi Gras and the day after Pancake Day/Fat Tuesday - may you have a blessed day.
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