Light shines on the godly, and joy on those whose hearts are right. Psalm 97: 11

Washing Windows

            I washed windows last week, only an annual event for me even though we now have replacement windows that tip in, making the process a lot easier than it used to be when this old farmhouse had its original, 1860s wooden sashes with aluminum storm windows slapped over a century or so later.  The replacement windows are a huge improvement!  When I spritzed on the last spray of cleaner and rubbed the last cloth over the last window, making it literally squeaky clean, it felt great to have that accomplished. And once again, I marveled at how much brighter the rooms were without the year's layer of grime dimming the sunlight.

            Confession is one component of cleaning our inner windows, so to speak.  We might say that confession is the cleaning solution we must apply.

Bring your confessions, and return to the Lord. Say to him, "Forgive all our sins and graciously receive us, so that we may offer you our praises (Hosea 14:2).

            There's a causal relationship stated in this verse:  We confess and are forgiven so that we may offer our praises to the Lord.  Without our confession and the Lord's forgiveness, we can't offer praise.  Isn't that an amazing correlation?

            Forgiveness is another component of cleaning, a two-fold one.  First, if we want to be forgiven, we must extend forgiveness to others:

Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.  Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you.  Forgive others, and you will be forgiven (Luke 6:37).

Again, a causal relationship: We forgive, then we are forgiven.  Secondly, we stand in need of God's forgiveness:

He [Jesus] is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name (Acts 10:43).

Really, though, assigning ordinal numbers to these--first, second--isn't accurate because without God granting us the grace to do so, we can't forgive others.  So, in our window-washing analogy, God forgiving us, and us forgiving others, would both be cloth and hand.

            Before I washed the windows, the layer of grime hadn't really been visible.  I mean, it wasn't like we'd experienced a Dust Bowl sort of storm; the grime had accumulated mote by mote over time, dimming the light.  It wasn't until I looked at the cleaning cloth that I could see how much grime had actually been between me and the light.  The application to our inner lives is obvious. 

            Time to do a little inner window washing? It's amazing how much more light shines in through a clean window. Prepare to be dazzled.

Daye Phillippo

May 2015