From Dust You Came

To dust you will return.

What a timely reminder.

I am dust.

My body and all of the things I have accumulated amount to dust.

As I worshiped tonight, as ashes were smeared on my forehead in the shape of a cross, I was reminded of the depth of my sin. And that life as we know it will soon pass away.

These bodies of our? Dust.

The reality of it all shook me a little bit tonight, evoking emotions I would have been bashful to share with anyone else at the time. I imagined someone asking, "Are those tears, Grace? What's wrong?", and quickly dried my eyes.

I was not about to explain to some unsuspecting person that my heart was literally hurting for the sin in the world. In the room. In me.

There's no way I could explain that tears were welling up in my eyes because I'm feeling the weight and meaning of this verse:

Friends, this world is not your home. So don't make yourselves cozy in it. Don't indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. 1 Peter 2:11

"I don't belong here," I thought.

I watched my pastor carefully tonight as he carried the communion elements into the crowd, several rows back, to a frail, older woman. After serving the bread and the wine, he stooped down where his eyes could meet hers before speaking these familiar words, "May the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen you and keep you steadfast in the one true faith until life everlasting".

I shifted my focus to the woman. She could barely lift her head; she was so tired. And I don't mean ready for bed, tired. I mean, she's run the race set before her and heaven is coming for her soon, tired. She's ready.

I found myself hoping against all hope that the young people sitting around me, and well...everyone in our church tonight...that we would truly understand what this woman understands. That this place is not our home.

I'm hoping we too will be found kneeling at God's altar with repentant hearts when we're nearing "life everlasting".

I hope God will give us eyes to see His Kingdom, right here, right now. Worth more than any treasure. Worth more than the good health and long lives we strive for. Worth more than any amount of power or fame.

I hope we will not forget. That I will not forget.

I want to live for the things that will remain. The things I can take with me to life everlasting.

From dust we came.

To dust we will return.