Billion Year Old Carbon
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Liturgy of the Ashes, Ash Wednesday, Lent
We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
Joni Mitchell, Woodstock
"Billion year old carbon." Joni is off by several billion years. The earth is 4.5 billion years old. The "dust" of which we are formed is stardust, composed of elements fused many billions of years ago in the nuclear furnaces of long-dead stars. That's where the elements heavier than hydrogen and helium came from. (Hydrogen and some helium appeared some 700,000 years after the big-bang.) We are all physical kin to every other object in the universe. The scale of time and space are vast beyond our imagination. Some find these facts disturbing. I find them fascinating.
The book of Genesis describes how God took some of that stuff he created, formed 'adam ("humankind" in Hebrew) and breathed into 'adam the breath of life. Our life comes from God. Apart from him, the particles that make up my physical body would be just more cosmic flotsam.
The elements that compose my body will one day return to the ground from which they came. If the universe lasts another several billion years, they may be collected up into yet another star to be cooked into something else once again.
I need not fear, however, my small stature in the cosmic scheme, the shortness of life or the fact that I am made of the same stuff as earth and sky. The God who breathed life into this stardust made made me in his own image. I am more than just dirt with a pulse; I bear the image of the creator of the universe.
Most importantly, "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." (Romans 8:11 ESV)
Christians do not enter Lent apart from the knowledge of Jesus' resurrection and the promise of our own place in his eternal kingdom. What will it be like to live in a way that transcends our "dustness"? Paul wrestles with this in 1 Corinthians 15, but ultimately people of dust can really imagine no other kind of existence. What awaits for us is beyond our comprehension, but it is this hope that sets us free to see our dusty lives honestly.
So let us remember that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. As people of dust, our hope can only be found in our creator and redeemer. Return to him, O Adam, for in him you are much more than billion year old carbon.
The Lord be with you.
Related: A Soldier's Lent
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