Ash Wednesday

I was a part of my first Ash Wednesday service last night. It was pretty neat. I got to put ashes on people's foreheads. It's hard to be consistent with it though, because inevitably one person gets a really nice, dark cross, and someone else gets a really light one, or one stroke shows up way more than the other. Oh well.
What I took away from it is that yes, we will die, yes, our lives can be a mess, but Jesus is bigger than that. He breaks into our darkness and brings life. Death is everything, and death is nothing. It is end of the beginning and although it is a scary concept at times, faith calls us to have confidence in what Jesus has done and said.
There's a story about two twins in the womb arguing about whether or not there is life after birth. I think in many ways we are like those twins, but all our questions and doubts won't be answered completely on this side of the great divide. Jesus has given us enough for now I think.