"I Just Cleaned the Floor!"

Today I was angry at my son.  He and his brother were eating just-baked homemade granola cereal at the table together.  Suddenly I hear a whiny scream.

I look and there is splattered milk and granola sprawling all over the floor.

"Why did you DO that?!"  For one, I don't know what is in his mind, except the constant refrain of my days---fighting and teasing his brother.  But for two, I was more annoyed because the floor was just mopped clean an hour prior.

There was discipline, to be sure, and of course I made him clean it up himself.  But he fought all the way.  I took his hand with the paper towels on all fours and held his hand while he and I wiped the mess together.

Towels.  Trash.  Mess.

While he was in his room, I finished cleaning it the "right way" to do a better job.  Of course having him clean it himself was for teaching, but really it had to be mopped again thoroughly.

I huffed outside to get the mop, and as I swished it side to side, still energized by anger and annoyance I suddenly heard a familiar voice.

It was my Teacher.

I realized the Lord was giving me a parable of myself, my own sin.

I sit in solitude studying His Word.  I let His Spirit fill me and forgive me, wash me and cleanse me.

Then I get up and go on with my day, somehow forgetting what he JUST taught me, and my sin makes a mess of His Spirit's work.

"Anyone who listens to the word

but does not do what is says

is like a man

who looks at his face in a mirror

and, after looking at himself,

goes away and immediately

forgets what he looks like."

James 1.23-24

Yet, His work is not ever finished while I'm still on this earth.  He continues to CLEANSE me and together with ME gets down and dirty to teach me.   And I, like my son, many times go about it fighting and fussing all the way.

But then He gets the Mop of His Spirit and finishes it up.  He cleans me, thoroughly.

I keep getting dirty again.  I keep sinning.  But He keeps cleaning me, cleansing me and forgiving me.

"I will sprinkle clean water on you,

and you will be clean;

I will cleanse you from all your impurities

and from all your idols.

I will give you a new heart

and put a new spirit in you...

And I will put my Spirit in you 

and move you to follow my decrees

and be careful to keep my laws."

Ezekiel 36.25-27