"Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
I heard this as dust and ashes were thumb-rubbed on my forehead in the sign of a cross on Ash Wednesday. Remembering that I am dust calls me to consider that I am a created being, from the first beings, "earth-man" Adam and "out of earth-man" Eve.
And I remember that dust was declared "good" by the Creator. "... and let dry ground appear. And it was so... And God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:9,10).
As a member of humanity, I bear the image of God, similar to a work of art bearing this relationship with its creator.
"Dust restored" is a way of saying that for the season of Lent (Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday), I am undergoing a restoration project. All that is good, true, beautiful and unified will show forth more clearly as my being-in-Jesus is restored like an old painting.
Solvents and microscopes and tools and trained art restorers took 22 years, beginning in 1978, to restore Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. So I imagine the solvents of bread and wine, the tools of Scripture and prayer, and the being-in-community with other works of art that are being restored, as my Lenten journey this year.
Dust restored. And God sees that it was (and is) good.
