When I was a girl, we lived in a large farmhouse and my Saturday chore was to clean the front room. This was huge with lots of intricately carved furniture and an open fire, so vacuuming was quick, but dusting took forever!

 I have a theory that with no open fires, dust hardly exists, and dusting is a waste of my time! So please don’t run a finger over my surfaces when you come to see me! But dust is a major part of the Ash Wednesday service that heralds the start of Lent. In that service we are all “ashed” with a cross on our foreheads made of ash, traditionally from last year’s palm crosses, and told to remember that, as the bible says, “you are dust”. 

What’s that all about? God never stops creating... Well, it is to remember that we were all created by God in his own image, when God modeled humankind out of dust and breathed his life into us. Now I am not denying evolution here, or the biological birth etc, but I still believe that it is God who created me. We all know that science even now is very poor at making babies, it is still very firmly in God’s hands! God stands for life, and we are all part of that cycle. We are born, we live and then we die and return to dust. 

So why do we remember this on Ash Wednesday? For me, it is to remember that God never stops creating, - ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Revelation chapter 21, verse 5. Lent is a time for us to make things better, yes even to do some dusting, to try and clean up our act. How you do that is up to you. I try to get a bit more discipline into my prayer life (I’ve never been good at routine) and try to spend more time reading about my faith – I usually buy the Archbishop of Canterbury’s lent book. Lent is a time to make things better... 

We are running a Lent course this year that has been produced by the charity Embrace the Middle East. The course explores the theme of Hope in the bible. We certainly need Hope, especially in the Middle East. Here is another idea: I have a friend who removes one item each week from her wardrobe during Lent, to donate to charity. What do you want to do to “clean yourself up” this Lent? 

Remember, God gives Life and he can certainly renew yours!

Blessings to all,               Vivienne