The 'Dirt Blessing'

Two years ago I waited in the hospital in Alabama for my granddaughter to make her entry into the world.  She arrived as scheduled, and promptly made us wait to get to hold her.  Her lungs didn't inflate well when she was first born, which reminded us all of a great lesson...we are not in control.

Yesterday she received ashes on her forehead for Ash Wednesday.  I should say, she and a good deal of the earth's population received these ashes as a reminder of that great lesson also.  We are still not in control.  We get to make choices and decisions, but the truth is exactly what the priest or deacon says as he traces the cross of Christ on our foreheads "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return."

Jordan told me Evie was all excited that she got a "dirt blessing".  She's right, it looks like dirt.  It's actually the burnt remains of the palms from last year's Palm Sunday Mass.  That was the one where we were all excited by the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and the people were SO excited that he was there and laid palm fronds on the road before him as he rode in on the colt of an ass. Just before my sins nailed him to a cross.  Mine, yours, all of ours, because he didn't have any of his own.

Evie's right!  It is a dirt blessing.  We started as dirt and we'll end that way.  The important part is what we do while we are MORE than dirt.

For that brief moment of time between when our lungs inflate with the breath of God until we give back our last breath of God when our time here is over, we are more than dirt.

I have been taught that the breath of God contains within it some of His divinity, which is in each of us.  So maybe our job while we're here is to give it away.  Give your divinity to every person you meet by acknowledging theirs.  Give away the stuff that really matters.  Give time.  Give Love.  Give kindness and gentleness.  Give forgiveness and acceptance and find the beauty that this world is searching for and can't seem to see. Share your vision while your eyes are still able to see.  Share your laughter while your mind is still able to see the humor in life.  Share your song as long as your voice holds out.  Then just love.

Evie's a big girl now with her very own dirt blessing, and even though she's only been with us for 2 short years, it seems like she's always been.

This year, for Lent, use your days wisely.  Be a blessing, even if you're a dirty one.    

A Blizzard of Blessings

The snow is plentiful this morning.  There is so much that it weighs down the branches of my trees, and makes my shrubs look like they are made of clouds.

But if you look really REALLY closely, what you would see are billions and billions of individual snowflakes.  Each one is a unique six-sided work of art, crafted expressly for the purpose of being a snowflake.  If only one were to fall from the sky, you'd never notice it, but when they get together they close schools, and make roads impassable.  If the "Mayhem" commercials are to be believed (and they're usually trustworthy) they also get heavy enough to collapse rooftops.

Together they change the world.  They turn green lawns white.  As they are blown and drifted, they determine which roads we can travel.  They cover all the stuff in my side yard, including the shovel I will need to move them. All because they came down together.

It hit me this morning that this is EXACTLY the reason we worship together.  Certainly we could pray alone at home, and we should, but if that's all we do, then that one prayer is like that one single flake falling alone. When we pray our prayers together we become a blizzard of blessings, changing the world!

Together our prayers can close roads leading the wrong way.  Together our prayers can weigh down the branches of our pride, reminding us to be humble and lowly.  Together our prayers can cause snow days from school (and life), allowing us time to stop and refresh and renew our spirits.

Jesus said that wherever 2 or more are gathered in His name, He will be among them. Come join Jesus and  your friends this weekend.  Let's pray down a blizzard of epic proportions!