Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Today is a day for remembering that we are simply creatures, not the Creator. We remember those we love who have returned to the dust. We remember our place in the large arc of history. We remember that we are frail and small and that the world does not revolve around us. It’s a solemn day to remember. But that remembering also leads us to freedom. Freedom comes to God’s people in the most unlikely of places: in the desert, in the wilderness, in exile, under an oppressive empire, on the cross, in the homes of scared disciples locked away. Freedom arrives in the ordinary things of water, word, bread and wine and today in ashes.