Lenten Photo a Day Challenge

Lenten Photo a Day Challenge - Day 1: Dust

Growing up Catholic, we always gave up something for Lent.  Since I'm no longer Catholic, it's not something I regularly do, but I still feel like I should be doing something to mark the season.  For the last few years, I've focused more on adding something to my Lenten journey with the goal of drawing closer to Christ during the 40 day walk towards Easter.  This year I'm participating in a Photo a Day Challenge.  My list is from the Catholic Sistas (I know, kind of funny because I am now Lutheran, but with a few changes I like their list and the idea to keep it on Instagam).  Each day's photo is taken and published on Instagram and any other social media platforms I wish.  I'll be taking a photo each day, but I also feel a desire to write a few words to accompany these photos.  I will share the small book I'm creating to record my photos and devotions as soon as it's ready.  Each day's word is something for me to examine in my own quiet time and study and if I'm led to write and share, I will.  Today's word is dust.  Unfortunately, it wasn't too difficult to find a bit of dust in my home.  I carved a cross into that dust and it got me thinking.

Don't you hate it when the morning sun shines through the window and everything that looked clean and dust free the night before now sports a thick layer of dust with the light of day?  I swear I just dusted the house two days ago! Truth is, it was just harder to see in the dark.  Maybe I did just dust a couple days ago (or perhaps it's been longer), but it re-gathered and re-settled and was clearly evident as the sunlight hit it at daybreak.  A wee bit like our own hearts, don't you think?  We work so hard to keep it clean, but it's hard, impossible really, to get every last speck of sin swept out.  Try as we may, as soon as we think we're clean, more sin settles on down and is clearly revealed in the light of the Son.  It's why we need a Savior.  We just cannot do it on our own.  It's why we need a Savior - the Son who stands against sin, death, and the devil.  It's why we need a Savior.  So we can stand in the presence of the pure source of light and love.  Through Christ alone are our hearts made clean.  I'll keep working on the dust, but I'll also keep turning to my Savior to allow Him to continue His work in me.  He does a much more thorough job.  

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within in me.

Psalm 51:10