DIRTY LAUNDRY, CLEAN HEART
I took a pair of my work pants out
of the basket and hung them on the line. I’d washed them and used lots of
bleach. But when I pinned them up, a sadness came over me, and I started to get
choked up.
There were dozens of paint spots
and stains from all the recent projects. There were more than I realized. I
thought of how many stains are in our lives. No matter how we try to bleach
them out, they remain a stain. And no matter how open we think we are about our
lives, if we take an honest look, we’ve all got something to hide, something we
don’t want to be shared.
God already knows every one of
those things. The Lord was right there with me when I stole that makeup. He was
there when I ganged up on that girl and threw her bike in the creek. He was
there when I broke a friendship by saying something hurtful. God said to Jacob:
“but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins. Thou hast wearied me with
thine iniquities” (Is. 43:24). Instinctively we know that God is omnipresent,
but still we do stupid and wrong things in His presence. Why?
Because we don’t really BELIEVE
He’s there. In our bedrooms, in the bathroom, at the bar, the casino...you name
the place or situation, He’s there. The Lord is with each of us everywhere,
whether we like it or not! There’s no hiding from God. “Whither shall I go
from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up
into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there”
(Ps. 139:7-8).
God sees all our stained laundry,
but He loves us so much for believing in His son Jesus, that He’s willing to
overlook all our sins and miraculously wipes them out, for His own sake! He
doesn’t WANT to look at our stains. He only wants to see that we believed in
His son Jesus and for that alone, He “blots out and cancels your
transgressions, for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (Is. 43:25).
I went out and got my painter’s
pants off the line, smiled, and breathed a sigh of relief. Yes, they’re stained
but as clean as they can be for now. Though God was there when every splash of
paint hit them, He doesn’t care. He only sees who wears them—me, the one He
loves.
Love, Carolyn
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