The Season of Lent

We attended a wonderful Ash Wednesday service last evening. The boys truly enjoy their Bible study playgroup and they really do leave there with new knowledge of Christ. It's so fun to talk to them about what they learn--out of the mouths of babes come the truest and most honest young views of our Lord and Savior.

As for the service, we were asked to write three things on a place piece of paper upon entering the church. We were to write a sin we have committed against God, a sin we have committed against our neighbor and a sin we have committed against ourselves. Then we folded our papers and upon approaching the alter for our ashes, dropped the papers into a basket. The pastor took the papers, still folded and gathered many together. Then he drove a nail through them and nailed them on a wooden cross laying beside the alter. Wow--how powerful was that! What a sight when he raised the cross at the conclusion of the service, with papers nailed to all areas of the cross and talked about how Christ died to SAVE US FROM THESE SINS. How the Almighty gave his only Son so that we could be forgiven for these transgressions. They were taken from us and placed upon the cross. It makes me weep, just the thought. That no matter what we wrote, no matter the sin, no matter the error in our ways, we are forgiven and are given the blessing of a relationship with Him anyway.

This one act has done so much to help me to step into the season of Lent in another way this year. It is a picture burned into my mind and will not be soon forgotten.