If it feels strange to you for Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday to fall on the same day, you’re not alone. It’s not often that the two coincide. And on the surface, it would seem as though the two have nothing in common. Ash Wednesday is commonly a day of fasting from extravagence, and Valentine’s Day is about pulling out all the stops with flowers, candy, and fancy meals. And going a bit deeper, Ash Wednesday is a day that we remember our mortality, our sin, our frailty, and our brokenness, while Valentine’s day focuses on life and love and happiness.
So can ashes and candy hearts really go together?! Maybe. Hear me out.
During Lent, the invitation is given for us to “return to the Lord your God” (Joel 2) and to “be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20). We do that through confession, fasting, prayer, giving, and repentance. All things that we need to do as we live in relationship with God and one another. But those things are only a healthy spiritual discipline if those things turn us back to the love of God and turn us to love our neighbor. If those things only make us navel-gaze, bemoaning our sinful selves, those practices are not doing what they were meant to do. And, if our Ash Wednesday observance ends only with confession and repentance, and we never allow ourselves to receive the grace, forgiveness, and love of God, we’ve missed the mark. Because even on Ash Wednesday night, as ashes are marked on our brows as a reminder of our mortality and our sin, those ashes will be made in the sign of a cross: the sign of God’s abounding love who is slow to anger and relents from punishing (Joel 2:12-13).
So as you come to Ash Wednesday this week, if you’re coming from other Valentine’s Day festivities, so be it. And, if your mind is on “love,” then so be it. Because at the core, Ash Wednesday is all about love…a love that goes deeper than the surface. For through Jesus Christ, God is offering you more than a Hallmark card and a box of conversation hearts; rather, God is offering you his faithfulness, his steadfastness, and his mercy in a way that no greeting card could ever capture.