“Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” People around the world are hearing those words today as ashes are smeared on their foreheads with a solemn reminder of their mortality on this first day of Lent.

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” I’ve already heard those words spoken at the graveside of a dear sister in Christ this week, Norma, who was a member of the congregation I served for over 30 years. She was there when I arrived and still there after I retired. And she is now in the congregation of those wearing white robes who surround the throne of the risen and ascended Lamb of God.

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” I will most likely hear those words again this Friday at the funeral of another sister in Christ, another lady named Norma, who I knew even longer but not as well as the first Norma. She was a member of the congregation in which my wife grew up, where my father-in-law was pastor. I met Norma before Cheryl and I were married and saw her almost every time we went back to Vernon. We saw her in the hospital a few days before she died. She, too, rests in the arms of her Savior.

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Sober, somber thoughts that are based on God’s Word.

Genesis 3:19 “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Genesis 18:27 Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes…”,

Job 30:19 He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.

Ecclesiastes 3:20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

If that were all the message, Lent and our entire lives would be tragic and meaningless. But that is not the entire message. We observe Lent to remind us what our sins deserve, the penalty demanded, and that someone else has taken that on Himself and paid it for us. Jesus came for that very reason. He did it for you. He did it for me. He did it for everyone. Those who put their faith in Him have this blessed assurance.

Read the words that have been spoken so many times at a Christian burial:

“We now commit this body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subdue all things to Himself.”

Lent is a time to remember our sins, to remember what they deserve, and to thank God that He sent Jesus to give us a way out, a rescue, salvation, and life everlasting.

God bless your Lenten journey this year.