On Ash Wednesday we remember our mortality. Ashes to Ashes. Dust to dust. We came from the earth in the Genesis creation story and we will return to the earth. The Bible also tells us that people are like grass; we wither and die. We can see how the words ‘humble’ which is related to ‘humus’ which is related to soil connect to our circumstances here on Earth. In the scope of the cosmos, we are less than a speck of dust. I think of the movie, “The Grinch,” where the opening shows us that all the drama that is about to take place in Whoville is happening on a snow flake.
In the book, Orbital, by Samantha Harvey, a group of astronauts is orbiting Earth 16 times every day in a space ship. Here is a description of one orbit: “Their transit approaches West Africa just as morning breaks. The vast spill of day blots out every obvious human landmark to the naked eye. They pass central Africa, the Caucasus and Caspian Sea, southern Russia, Mongolia, eastern China, the north of Japan in blanching light. By the time night comes in the Western Pacific there’s no land in sight, no cities to proclaim mankind. On this orbit the entire night-pass is oceanic and black, stealing down the mid-Pacific between New Zealand and South America, brushing the tip of Patagonia and back up to Africa, and just as the ocean runs out and the coasts of Liberia and Ghana and Sierra Leone creep up, sunrise blasts open the dark and daytime floods in, the entire northern hemisphere once again luminous and humanless. Seas, lakes, plains, deserts, mountains, estuaries, deltas, forests and ice floes.
“As they orbit they might as well be intergalactic travellers chancing upon a virgin frontier. It seems uninhabited Captain, they say when they glance out before breakfast. We believe it could be the remnants of a collapsed civilization. Prepare the thrusters for landing.” [pp. 20-21]
A whole orbit around the entire Earth and there is no evidence of humanity. No sign of people. Here we are on this planet, consumed with our drama, our busy schedules, our problems, our challenges and heartbreaks, all of it, and from just orbiting distance away, none of it can be seen. None of it matters.
Maybe this gives us some perspective this Lent; to not take ourselves too seriously. Our problem may not actually be the end of the world. Maybe in the scheme of things, forgetting your phone at home, losing the permission slip, not paying that bill on time, maybe it is not as cataclysmic as we thought.
Prayer: We pray that we can find solace in the majesty of the cosmos around us. May we try to see our daily struggles and our problems from a more realistic perspective. This is the day God has made. May we rejoice and be glad in it! Amen!
Note: There will be no devotion tomorrow, Sunday, as Sundays are not counted in the 40 days of Lent.
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Devotion prepared by Rev. Kim P. Wells, pastor of Lakewood United Church of Christ in St. Petersburg, FL
The devotions this Lenten season will be based on the novel Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Orbital won the Booker Prize in 2024. It is a beautifully written story about the experience of a group of people orbiting the Earth in a spaceship. They see 16 sunrises and sunsets in a 24 hour period. The book is a reflection on the experience of living together and appreciating planet Earth in a new way.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 