If you had a child who came home covered in mud, would you reject them? Would you march them off to a dungeon, lock them in and throw away the key?
What if that child was so dirty they were hardly recognizable as your child? What if the neighbors were whispering he was some kind of monster?
What if that child really did not want a bath? What if he wanted to go back out and roll in the dirt some more?
As a loving parent, I believe you would look right through that dirt and see the wonderful child you know. You would see how perfect he is going to be after his bath.
I believe you would take your child by the hand and lead them to the bath. Yes, take their hand even if they are kicking and screaming.
You would lovingly wash all the dirt away and present the child to the mirror to remind him what he was created to be.
I like to think that child would laugh in delight as he looked in the mirror and discovered how much he looked like you.
I believe that is a picture of how God sees us and cares for us, even when we are so covered with sin that we are almost unrecognizable as His Child.
I believe He firmly guides us and takes away dirt we can’t.
I believe He cleans us up even when we don’t ask Him to. He loves the children He created and He wants us to see ourselves that way too.
And if we arrive at the Pearly Gates covered with the sin of this world, maybe God in His Great Mercy will clean us up and still let us into Heaven!
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness.
Ezekiel 36:25
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin… wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow!
Psalm 51:2 and 7
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known!
1 Corinthians 13:12
