Scatter the Ashes

by Macy Johnson

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

(Luke 24:5 NIV)

 

Gwen Ford Faulkenberry wrote, “You know that one death, loss, or failure that you just can’t get over? It’s time to scatter the ashes to the wind. It’s time to begin rising with your living Savior.”

 

While walking on the hot coals of difficult experiences, glowing ashes burn the bottom of my feet and make it difficult to move forward or march on. The longer I linger, analyzing the coals, touching them with my fingers, smelling the aroma of singed flesh, time is wasted and my flesh disintegrates. How foolish I am!

 

I look back on my many years of walking this earth and recall times I would like to forget. Although the Bible teaches us to let go of the past, it is very difficult for humans to forget everything. I want to remember the experiences that push me closer to Jesus, the good and the bad. Heat from the ashes of painful times can lift me up higher into His arms.

 

I recall a time when I walked so closely with Jesus I could feel His breath on my face and inhale His sweet aroma. Over the years, at different times, I tried to get that feeling back. I asked myself, “What happened to cause me to feel so close to Jesus?”

 

Past feelings were nailed to the cross in a different time and place. Rather than try to retrieve them, I must burn the past and scatter the ashes. Then I can reach out and grasp new feelings and new experiences ahead, waiting to be felt and lived. The best is yet to come!

 

I will step off the bed of hot coals and into the pool of cool, healing waters with Jesus as He blows the ashes away. I hope you will, too!