Clean

A fun childhood memory for me is when Dad let my sister and I make mud pies while Mom was gone shopping.  We had big fun and got horribly nasty.  Oh, what squealin' went on when Dad turned the water hose on us to rinse off the mud.  That water was sooooo cold, but we were all cleaned up before Mom got home!

Where God is concerned, "clean" is a relative term.  In Luke's Gospel, a Pharisee asked Jesus to dinner and was surprised when Jesus skipped the ceremonial Jewish custom of washing before He ate.  Jesus said to His host, "You Pharisees wash the outside, but inside you are still dirty -- full of greed and wickedness! Fools! Didn't God make the inside as well as the outside?" (11:37-40)  We give so much effort to the newest spring fashions, pedicures, seasonal hair styles, and even meticulously manicured lawns to array outward appearances while we allow inner man to rot and decay from sinfulness.  The Greek word for "fools" Jesus used here is translated mindless, ignorant, egotistical, unbelieving, unwise.  I fear there is little difference between the practice of the Pharisees in Jesus' day and our own ways -- that what deserves our real attention is not what is openly seen.  Truth is the heart matters most to The Father, and it’s our hearts for which Christ died.  Next time you're in the shower, consider God's idea of "clean."