“Dust thou art, and unto dust, thou shalt return.” I don’t remember exactly when we Lutherans in the small speck of northwest Ohio made the transition to the trendy/modern, “Remember you are dust, and unto dust, you shall return,” but even me who may not have been the biggest fan of the thee’s and thou’s and shalt’s and the like from the King James Version Bibles that stubbornly hung around the church building; I still had this unexplainable appreciation of the seemingly ancient Ash Wednesday proclamation. There was something so formal about it. Something perhaps even regal. It was a precious connection to the generations past who heard the same words on the first night of their Lenten journey. Or maybe it was the poetic-ness of it, possibly making mortality not quite as intimidating or frightening; as if it was just the natural order of things that God didn’t mind getting down and dirty in with shaping mortal and everlasting life.
