Lent Day 1: Ash Wednesday

Reading: Genesis 1:1-19

In the beginning God…. It often seems as if the writer of Genesis should have just stopped there and paused. The whole story of God and his creation, not just in Genesis 1, but throughout the Bible is a story that hinges on those words. At the beginning of our existence, at the beginning of beginnings, existed the God without beginning. All other Gods have had human origins, birthed in the imagination of humanity. But we were birthed in the thoughts, and words, and breathe of a God without beginning. And our beginning was a beginning was a birth of the light. And God said, “Let there be light..” Into the dark and formless void God began the act of creation by birthing light through his word. On this day of darkness and reflection, Ash Wednesday, a day of penitence it is good to carry the hope of light. It is good to worship a God who speaks light into the darkness and formless void of our chaos. And when God brings light into the darkness the result as God says is good.

Throughout these 40 days of preparation, our time in the bleakness of the wilderness, facing our temptations, going through the reflection and repentance necessary to celebrate with joy God’s act of ultimate redemption for his creation, we live in a continual state of thanksgiving for the God of creation. We give thanks for the God without beginning. We acknowledge in our thankfulness how small and insignificant we are when compared to our God. We, like Isaiah in the throne room of God (Isaiah 6) come closer to God in these days and as we approach the throne we fall to our knees and realize how sinful and woefully unworthy we are to be in the presence of God. And so our Lenten prayer is this.

God of creation, Almighty God who created everything out of nothing, who brought light into darkness and order and beauty into chaos, bring light and life into our hearts of darkness. Cleanse us from the iniquities of our soul. Bringing the burning coal of your holiness and touch it to our lips that we may be made clean in your presence. We humbly acknowledge your majesty and glory and our place of total dependence on you. Prepare us now as we enter the wilderness and shape us and form us into the perfect image of Christ, the Risen Lord. Amen.