Weekly Greeting - February 13, 2026
On February 22, 2012 Jay got the call that he was being placed on the liver transplant list at Vanderbilt.
It was, of course, the outcome that we had hoped for, but it wasn’t lost on us that the call came on Ash Wednesday. Moments after getting off of the phone, Jay drove over to Jackson FUMC — the church I was serving at the time — where the kids and I were waiting for him before the Ash Wednesday service. Because Jay and I had been at Vanderbilt the entire week before for his transplant evaluation, my colleagues were kind enough to excuse me of any Ash Wednesday duties. That meant that we, as a family, could attend the service together — a rarity for obvious reasons.
We wept as Jay received the mark of the ashes on his forehead and was reminded that “You are made from dust, and to dust you will return.” For someone only months away from death those words needn’t have even been spoken, and yet they were probably more powerful for him then than they have been since.
When we receive the mark of the ashes on our bodies and hear these words, we remember just how limited we are: That the span of our lives is the blink of an eye in the great timeline of the cosmos, and that our desire for immortality in our physical bodies is a vain hope. There is only one way to eternal life, and that is through giving ourselves — body and soul — to the great love of God through Jesus Christ. Even that love will not save our bodies.
That is not to say that there is anything wrong with bodies. Bodies are beautiful. Bodies have arms that embrace us and lips that kiss us. Bodies have hands to scratch our backs and to rub lotion on aching feet. Bodies have mouths to enjoy the best food. Jesus had his own body that he walked around in — touching people, healing people, laughing with people, and crying with people.
Ash Wednesday reminds us that we were made from dust. Fearfully and wonderfully made from dust. Fearfully and wonderfully made from dust and the very breath of God. But we do not last forever. God lasts. We are not in charge. God is.
That, my friends, is the good news of Ash Wednesday.
Mary Beth