Blessing the Dust
A reminder of what God can do with the dirt on election eve
I have a hershey’s kiss tattoo on the top of my right butt cheek. The man who inked me up was at least 70 and when he asked me why this tatt, I said, “Because you’ll never meet anyone else who has one.”
Since it’s behind me, I often forget my first tattoo exists. After speaking at a cohort last night, I raided my pantry post-Halloween, and grabbed a handful of kisses before enjoying the latest episode of Bake Off with my hubby. It’s been — oh I don’t know — twenty years since I ate one. Delicious. 10/10. Divine. Why did I give these up for cacao and carob? (los angeles antics is the reason.) Anyway, scrumptious.
To be fair, maybe they’re not that good; it’s just election week. I’m getting 30 texts and calls a day and door knockers are here on a regular. I love it; what a privilege to live in a democracy. What an honor to be among neighbors who serve. How delighted I am to march to the neighborhood church to cast my vote tomorrow morning. (And since it’s NC, there’s a DJ, and I expect to hear Petey Pablo.) Battleground energy is tense and beautiful.
One of my Professor’s at Fuller1 shared a beautiful blessing from Jan Richardson, and it soothed my soul. In the mess we’ve made in so many spaces, I am reminded mess can mark a new beginning. When we wake later this week, I hope you feel proud of how you’ve behaved, how you’ve loved, how you’ve commented and tweeted, how you’ve served. We are still neighbors, friends, and if we are enemies, the command is still love. What a beautiful resistance. May Jan’s words bring relief and hope to your heart.
Blessing the Dust
by Jan Richardson2All those days
you felt like dust,
like dirt,
as if all you had to do
was turn your face
toward the wind
and be scattered
to the four cornersor swept away
by the smallest breath
as insubstantial—did you not know
what the Holy One
can do with dust?This is the day
we freely say
we are scorched.This is the hour
we are marked
by what has made it
through the burning.This is the moment
we ask for the blessing
that lives within
the ancient ashes,
that makes its home
inside the soil of
this sacred earth.So let us be marked
not for sorrow.
And let us be marked
not for shame.
Let us be marked
not for false humility
or for thinking
we are less
than we arebut for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff
of which the world
is made
and the stars that blaze
in our bones
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear.
Blessing you and yours today, friends. Be good to yourself - take great care.
Much gratitude to Dr. Janette Ok for sharing this with us today. Her commentary, The New Testament in Color, with Esau McCaulley features the voices often left out of theological discussions. I’m underwater with grad school this quarter but come June, it will have been so worth it.