Wednesday, 21 February 2007

On Ash Wednesday at Hope

I had ashes placed on my head today, even though I'm not Roman Catholic. As Trygve stated, the ashes on Ash Wednesday serve as a public proclamation of your walk with Christ. It kind of compares to baptism in a way, at least in my view.

It's interesting; Revelation 13 mentions how the sign of the beast is marked either on the right hand or forehead. After thinking about it, I see Ash Wednesday in one respect as an answer to that. Instead of having a mark on my forehead which represents devotion to something evil, the ashes symbolize devotion to Jesus. Having ashes on your forehead on Ash Wednesday indicates (at least it SHOULD indicate) devotion to Him. It visually states, "I want to follow and serve Jesus." I'm certainly not perfect, but I want to please Him, even though I've messed up plenty of times.

Maybe that's why it shook me so much when one of my colleagues in the music department promptly mocked the ashes on my forehead in a joking fashion. I never would have imagined something like that happening here at Hope College...

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One of our professors made an uninformed comment in class. One girl walked in the professor said "What's with the smudge?" She had totally missed the connection yesterday between it and Ash wednesday. She had to make a bit of a recovery saying something to the effect of- oh, yeah. So what does it all mean? Why do they do it?
In her defence I must say that this girls mark was unusually large and very very dark. It was at least quarter size.

chickenlittle27