I haven’t really ever thought much about ashes.  I sort of obliviously float past the word as I read it in the Bible.  But the line from a worship chorus “out of the ashes, we rise” struck me yesterday.  I’ve sung it a lot, but thought about it very little, until yesterday.

What I thought was, “Really, God?  There’s gonna be ashes?”  I was thinking about sin.  I was thinking about the freedom that God offers us.  I was thinking about how, sometimes, I expect God to just come in and quietly remove those things that have taken root in my heart and life and actions.  I expect that I will, in an instant, go from sin-bound to set free with no effort, no sting, no consequence.

But this idea of rising from the ashes impressed a different picture on my heart, a picture of God burning up all that is not of Him, down to the tip of the longest root, leaving what might seem like destruction, barrenness, and brokenness.  The reality is that sin has consequences, and freedom from sin often requires what might seem like drastic measures.  God doesn’t want anything standing between us and Him, and if it means that we end up in a pile of ashes, then He’s willing to put us there.  He has little regard for our outward appearance when our hearts are not right with Him, and reputation, comfort, relationships, and desires all matter less than gaining freedom from whatever has us bound.

If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.—Matthew 5:29

When the Bible talks about ashes, it is often in reference to repentance or seeking God.  When faced with their sin, or when acknowledging a need for God’s help, a person would put on sackcloth and ashes.  Maybe a humbling of themselves?  Maybe a denial of self?  Maybe a statement to God (and the world) that nothing in life was worth more than His presence? I don’t know exactly.  But there is a vulnerability in it, there is a willingness to lay aside everything else for the sake of right relationship with the Lord.

That need for repentance hasn’t changed.  That experience of being brought low, of being exposed and broken is still sometimes a necessary one.  Purging sin from our lives might leave us in an ash heap.  In and of itself, that isn’t a hopeful thought.

But the good news – the hope we have in Christ – is that after repentance comes restoration.

God doesn’t leave us in the ashes.