Church Calendar: Valentines & Ash Wednesday

“…love and death are not strangers; they chase each other like childhood friends…The coincidence of these two holidays occurring on the same day feels providential, reminding us that death lingers at the edge of the sweetest romances…”*

Joy and grief.

Delight and suffering.

Love and death.

It’s a theme, in my life.

I’m sure it is for you, as well.

The two extremes surge through scripture and collide in a crescendo of glory in the gospels.

Nobody is more acquainted with these polar realities than Jesus.

God and man.

Worshiped and despised.

Adored and rejected.

Welcomed and crucified.

Valentines Day overlapping with Ash Wednesday this year was a sobering opportunity to meditate on my own hopeless weakness, but oh, the everlasting, all-consuming, freely-given, transforming love of God! The gift that was given simply by my belief in His name, and calling it out in response!

“JESUS!”

From the dust you created me, and to the dust I shall return. (Genesis 3:19. 3, Ecclesiastes 3:20)

From dust I was formed, so now my ashes are transformed. (Isaiah 61:3)

Thank you, Jesus, for defeating death forever!

For fulfilling the requirements that we never could.

For being our righteousness!

For taking my mess and creating something marvelous!

What a joy to sit in this tension, to bear witness to the conquering truth of the gospel while we wait for the fulfillment of what He has already secured for us!

Eternal life with Him!

As believers, we know that “death is just a prerequisite for resurrection. Let us have faith in what dust can be in the hands of a loving God. Ash Wednesday and the whole Lenten season invite us to sit in the tension of sickness and cure, sin and redemption, death and resurrection…In this season, we make an offering to God of our own dust- our selfish desires, our escapist habits, our earthly indulgences and dependencies, our bodies, appetites, time, and money- and we ask the Lord to make beauty from ashes.”**

And He does, friends.

Everytime.

You need not wipe the dirt from your hands before approaching Him.

Draw near.

Let Him wash you in His love.

* Esau McCaulley, “When Valentines Day Meets Ash Wednesday”

**Danielle Hitchen, “Sacred Seasons”

To read more about our Valentines Day, 2024, click here!