Cleansed

The other day I was in a market grocery shopping. Lucy was sitting in a grocery cart similar to the ones in America. We were waiting in line when a girl approached us. Well, not us, she approached Lucy. This girl was probably 12 or 13, although she could have been much younger. (People here tend to look much older than they actually are because of the difficult lives they lead.) She was very dirty, smelly, and possibly even mentally handicapped. She made a beeline for Lucy and just began caressing her head, rubbing her cheeks, and kissing her. You can imagine the scene... Lucy so lily white with cotton hair, bright blue eyes, and snowy skin and this girl. Quite the contrast! I had to fight the urge to recoil- to take my baby and run! Lucy gets a lot of attention, but NEVER like this. So, I stood there, maybe a little in shock, and watched as this girl adored, worshipped even, my daughter. As you may imagine , we were creating a little bit of a scene, but Lucy was unfazed, so I let it continue. After awhile I spoke to the girl. I tried to speak kind words and blessing to her, and bid her good day.

As I have recounted this event in my brain, the Lord has made it perfectly clear to me that I will relive this scene again some day. You see, when I die, I will go to heaven because I believe in God and that Jesus died to save me from my sins. But, that doesn't mean that I am not chock full of nastiness and sin. So, it will be me, dirty and unfit, worshipping the lily white Prince of Peace. It will probably be similar to the story in the Bible of the woman who washed Jesus's feet with her hair. The girl who was loving on Lucy was too busy adoring my daughter to notice how unfit she was to be touching her.

When I meet Jesus, I think one thing will be different. As I worship and adore Him, I am quite sure he will begin washing me, clothing me, and making me suitable to be in his presence. He promises to wash us white as snow. I have always thought that was a figurative phrase to talk how He cleanses us of our sin. But my experience with Lucy and that girl in the grocery store makes me think that there will be some real scrubbing that will need to take place as well.




“Come now, let’s settle this,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
I will make them as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson,
I will make them as white as wool.
Isaiah 1:18