I gave this short sermon for the Ash Wednesday service at Wesley Chapel on March 6, 2019. While it was given two years ago, the theme of “numbering our days” has remained with me. And it seems all the more relevant now, as we near the one-year mark for this pandemic. What has it taught us about time? We have been shown that we shouldn’t take anything for granted, and that our lives can be turned upside down in an instant. COVID has been a visceral reminder of the fragility of human life, not just in terms of our personal health but in terms of our life together – our social and economic institutions. It is as if “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” is broadcast to us in each day’s headlines. For the Christian this is not cause for despair but a call to to faith and hope in the God who has defeated death and holds our times in his hands. And it reminds us that our time in this mortal life is limited, so we should receive everything that comes into our hands as a gift that needs to be stewarded with a heart of wisdom.

I had Sandra McCracken’s setting of Psalm 90 in mind as I was reflecting on these themes. It’s a song worth meditating upon today.