This lent season I have discovered something about arriving, or the desire to arrive. On Ash Wednesday, Gina and I went to an Ash Wednesday service. Near the end of the gathering they had us come to the front, kneel on a pillow, and someone else whispered “From dust you have come, and to dust you will return” while they marked ash on our forehead in the shape of a cross. This ancient tradition reminded me of my mortality and humanity, which is not a bad thing. It was a reminder of how far I need to go.
As we (Gina and I) celebrate Lent together this year, I have noticed a deep longing for arrival. For a lot of people arriving is getting that financial break, that new car, the desired weight, or beating the latest video game. For me, it is vocation. I long to be in an environment where my vocation and occupation are one.
Arriving for Jesus was arriving at his unbearable death. Arriving for Jesus was sacrificing himself, giving up rites as God and coming to earth as a human. And then, arriving for him was the arrival for us all, his resurrection. Ultimate redemption for all of humanity.
The way I see it, we all want redemption we just long for it in things like money, a job, a person, an ideal image. Paul said, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. ” (Rom 8.19). All creation groans in anticipation for the full arrival of God’s Kingdom. That is the arrival we truly want because we know it is through his resurrection and return that dust is not the end of the story for us.
As we (Gina and I) celebrate Lent together this year, I have noticed a deep longing for arrival. For a lot of people arriving is getting that financial break, that new car, the desired weight, or beating the latest video game. For me, it is vocation. I long to be in an environment where my vocation and occupation are one.
Arriving for Jesus was arriving at his unbearable death. Arriving for Jesus was sacrificing himself, giving up rites as God and coming to earth as a human. And then, arriving for him was the arrival for us all, his resurrection. Ultimate redemption for all of humanity.
The way I see it, we all want redemption we just long for it in things like money, a job, a person, an ideal image. Paul said, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. ” (Rom 8.19). All creation groans in anticipation for the full arrival of God’s Kingdom. That is the arrival we truly want because we know it is through his resurrection and return that dust is not the end of the story for us.
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