"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust"
Gen_3:19: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for DUST thou art, and unto DUST shalt thou return."
Gen_18:27: "And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but DUST and ASHES:"
This is where the concept of “Ash Wednesday” came from, a reminder we will again become dust. In fact at the event of the death our physical body will, if left to itself, decay and eventually become part of the ground. It will become dust. Ashes remind us of dust.
The process will take longer if we permit the body to be treated by an undertaker. He will remove certain things and pump it full of preservatives. Even then it will eventually decompose and become part of the earth. This will happen although we try to protect it in concrete and titanium boxes. Given enough time all will disperse.
But the soul, the spirit, will never end. It will continue forever. You have a beginning (birth) but you have no end. At death you have one of two places to go: to heaven to be with Jesus, or the other place ever to be separated from him; a place some of us call “Hell”. During your physical life you have a choice of which of these destinations you will go. You will have no chance to change your mind after the physical dies. Choose the best option now while you can, the spirit dies not turn to dust and ashes.
