Ashes to Ashes

Post Author: Rev. Julia Burkley

We gathered to celebrate my grandmother’s life this Ash Wednesday. Marked with the cross smudged on foreheads, we visited, sharing memories, laughing, crying. 

This is the day we are supposed to remember our mortality. This is the day we put the ashes of the earth on our skin, we touch the dirt, the stardust, and we remember that death is certainty but not the enemy. 

Celebrating the life of a beloved felt fitting. Things grow out of the dust we are created from. 94 years Martha lived on this earth. She got married at 18 after my grandfather prayed for his future wife and ran into her on the sands of Virginia Beach. 11 children, all who knew love meant loud banter around a kitchen table, a mom who showed up for sporting events and always made a beach trip a necessity. A grandma who gave the best hugs, never missed calling on a birthday, and loved to go out for ice cream.  

Julia’s Grammy on her wedding day on September 15, 1951.

We know we are dust. Dust living lives of laughter, of heartache, of joy and connection. But dust that grows life and memories. 

And we know we will return to dust, just as my grandma knew, and just as she welcomed with open arms the return to the God she knew was waiting. 

We mark our foreheads on Ash Wednesday, claiming the gravity of mortality, but also claiming the hope of God’s promise, God’s peace. 

There is hope among the ashes. My grandma knew what was next. She knew, after a life lived so well, that she was ready to be at peace. 

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Martha returned to that dust. Just as each of us will. 

There is sadness, yes, but also, there is peace.