In the Old Testament, ashes represented repentance – a realization that we are nothing apart from God but dust and ash. On Ash Wednesday we recognize our own mortality with the sobering phrases, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust – from dust we came, to dust we shall return.” It seems so simple, so symbolic.
But just like everything else in our culture, even ashes have moved from something to be sober about to something to celebrate. As more and more people choose cremation as their mortuary option, some people have jumped on the trend and offered a way for you and your loved ones to put your ashes to good use.
A typical human cremation yields an amount of ash that’s equivalent to a five-pound bag of sugar. Most people just keep them in an urn or scatter them, but now it’s possible to actually turn at least some of those ashes into a stunning work of art for all posterity to see.
I cut an interesting article from the Salt Lake Tribune awhile back about a company called “Eternal Arts.” For a mere $3-400, two cups of your cremains can be made into a classic sculpture. Imagine your ashes worked into a replica of Rodin’s “The Thinker”, or Michelangelo’s “Pieta”. Perhaps your tastes run in the more popular realm – perhaps you’d like to become the Statue of Liberty, or a bust of Napoleon or Alexander the Great. Of course, you can go high end as well – having your ashes worked into a 20-inch statue of Jesus, for example, will run you about $800 and if you want a custom bust made of your face that’ll cost a whole lot more – but it’s possible.
There’s another company called LifeGem that goes even a step further – taking the carbon from human ashes and turning them into man-made diamonds! Imagine yourself as jewelry! And think of the implications – you get engaged, give your bride a diamond ring – imagine saying not, “This was my grandmother’s but “IT’S MY GRANDMOTHER!”
It could be a new fashion trend – creepy chic.
Sure, this kind of stuff would be hard for most of us to consider. But it does raise an interesting question: What do you want to become…eventually?
That’s a great question for Lent. It’s a shame to think that our lives could simply be boiled down to become a monument of ash…a conversation piece, a ring, a cheesy statue on the mantle. God is calling us to be a whole lot more.
At some point, the Bible reminds us, we’re all reduced to ash. Death is a reality. But Lent reminds us that it’s not a permanent reality. As we go through these forty days we’re reminded that God has broken into our ash-heap of a world and offered new life – resurrection, a fresh start.
God’s not interested in our monuments of ash, our tributes to our own accomplishments or (bad) tastes. Rather, God is interested in the person we’re becoming, both now and in the future. In Christ, God has broken into the world and given us a reason to hope beyond hope, to see even death as a means to life. What we do now, who we are now, matters in an eternal context. To borrow a phrase from Russell Crowe’s character in “Gladiator” – “What we do in life, echoes in eternity.” That’s a realization that lives can be lived way beyond this dusty, dirty reality.
The good news of Lent is that God wants to remold and remake us in HIS image, not our own. The disciplines of prayer and fasting, the sacraments, worship, and study are all means of allowing our ashen selves to be made into something way better than even a diamond – we can become God’s own, masterfully created in his perfect image – the image of Christ. That’s a transformation that is both free and priceless at the same time!
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Remember, but don’t plan on staying that way! That’s the joy of Lent and the promise of Easter.
Source: Nailen, Dan. “Cremains ‘live on’ in many forms.” The Salt Lake Tribune, October 24, 2003, p. A.1.
