Smudges

"Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return"

As I write this it is the afternoon of Ash Wednesday. As usual, I attended the noon Ash Wednesday service and then went to lunch and sort of forgot about the cross smudge on my forehead. As I was standing in line at the McDonald's, the worker behind the counter - trying to be helpful - pointed out the smudge of ash on my forehead and offered me a napkin with which to wipe it off.

While I couldn't see the smudge, I can still feel its presence. What does this smudge mean, after all? When the pastor placed it on my head he said the old familiar words, "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return." Pretty humbling thought - we are dust and to dust we shall return. In other words, we are really pretty worthless. We live, we die, and - with the rare exception - in a thousand years, only a few will remember we lived at all.

But the smudge on our forehead is more than a smudge. It isn't just a non-descript smudge of dirt. It's a cross in the same spot where many years ago another pastor placed a similar cross - a cross of water - at our baptism. Those crosses - one a reminder of our mortality and the other a cross of life - both remind us that someone died for us. Someone - Jesus Christ - gave his life for me, for you, for everyone on this planet. That act, that saving act, is what gives each of us value and worth. You could say it's "value added".

That's a value no one can take away from us. It was given to us as a free gift; a very expensive free gift in that it cost Jesus Christ his life. We wear that cross daily. As the hymn says, "All newborn soldiers of the crucified / bear on their brows the seal of him who died." (Lift High the Cross) Whether or not I see the cross on my brow - it is there. It has marked me as a Christian for all of my life just as it has marked countless others throughout history. The question is, does it make a difference? Can others see the cross as we live our lives? Or do we live our lives as though it is 'just a smudge' that we wipe away before anyone notices? What will we do today? Will we take the napkin offered by the world or will we leave the smudge for all to see? The choice is yours. Which will you choose?