It's easy to believe that the world is broken, because we see brokenness all around us. We sometimes feel that same brokenness inside ourselves.
But the same God who sent Jesus to change the world is not done with Christ's work. At the deepest level of who God is, God intends for the brokenness to be healed, for reconciliation to take place.
In these next moments, open yourself to the brokenness you know, and remain open for the healing that God offers.
So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21
Today, Ash Wednesday, is the first day of Lent. In some traditions people will go to church and get ashes smeared onto their foreheads as the minister says, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” This act is humbling and grounding. It is a way of remembering that God created you from dust, and you will return to the dust, thus returning to God.
This is a day of reconciliation, of being joined back together with God, of being reunited with the one who made you. This is a day of intentionally stopping to remember that we are made in the image of God and we are to treat others as the image of God. This is a day of consciously living in the knowledge that God made us, that Jesus came among us as servant that we might know God better, and that God continues to live among us as the Holy Spirit. Today is a day of reconciliation and being reunited. Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Shannon Kelly
God of creation, God of dust, be with me this day as I intentionally draw closer to you in the hopes of being reconciled to you and those around me. Remind me that in love I was made in your image and that to you I will return in love. Amen.
Move now into the broken world.
Travel with an intense determination
To find your way into healing,
To take the message of reconciliation
With you,
Within you,
For everyone.