Ashes have always been a sign of repentance and examples of this can be found frequently in scripture. Since the days of the early church, Christians have adopted this practice as a mark of penitence. Death, sinfulness, repentance…these are the things symbolized for us in the ashes. Ash Wednesday reminds us first that we are dust, and to dust we will return. Life is fleeting. Time is short. The ashes also remind us that we need God—his forgiveness, his grace, his love. God’s love has reached through our sinfulness, through the grim shadow of death, to the dust and the ashes of human life. We are loved. Nothing in this world, even death, can separate us from God’s love in Jesus Christ. This is the hope and promise that is smeared in ash upon our foreheads.