Made Well From Dust

My husband came back from his weekend retreat and ministry meetings almost every day after only to find that he has the flu. He’s holed up in the guest room with five medicines he got from the nurse practitioner. My oldest is home with strep. She’s on an antibiotic. My youngest just returned to school after a brief virus that gave her some sneezing and is one day away from finishing her antibiotic for bronchitis.

Needless to say, I thought I was going to enter into Lent with deep reflection, and mostly I’m making soup and disinfecting. My mind is racing from all of the work I’ve been doing and being at a very crowded Ash Wednesday service today didn’t quiet it. But I’m encouraged that Lent is a time for simplifying and quieting, and that I may get that reflection after all.

The one thing that came to me while I was considering something to “give up” or “take on” concerned a longing for a deeper sense of my identity in God.

On Ash Wednesday, we are reminded that we were fashioned from the dust. So, how did He form me? Why am I the way I am? How can I be less like the person the world tries to say I am and more like the person He made me to be? These are my questions.

And I didn’t feel I should pursue it alone. I felt I should take you with me. So, for 40 days, I am going to pray about who God made us to be and what He wants to do with us. I hope to write a prayer about it every day…or find one…in between triage. May He bring us closer to Him as we discover ourselves.

Heavenly Father, I praise You for Your creativity. You have an endless imagination. I praise You for Your creation. You made everything good. Lord, You imagined us, made us and declared us good. Please reveal Your heart in how You made us. Reveal to us our goodness. Please bless us in our identities and show us who You made us to be. In Jesus’ name. Amen.