If You Make a Mess...

Good morning on this dark day. To grab a phrase from the great Tolkien, I speak no words of omen, the day is dark because I am up early. This morning, I get to clean up a mess. This activity naturally follows from making one. Now, you may try to get a wife or girlfriend to clean up your mess, or you may try to get a father or mother to clean up your mess, but if you make a mess, you most often get to clean up the mess. This mess cleaning should not be a duty of any one person unless pay is involved. Men, if you make messes and have your wife clean up after you, then fork over the appropriate amount of cash and do be generous in this endeavor. Most households in these days of dual working parents have some sort of division of labor. My cats and I have worked out a system where they make messes and I clean them up, but that is only normal with pet owners. The equity is that we get to call ourselves owners and then do all the cleanup work too. One of the more difficult tests of love can be to clean up a mess that you did not make.

Some are caregivers for enfeebled parents. My neighbor helps care for his wife who has dementia. Injury or disease may cause a person to lose the ability to care for himself. If insurance or family wealth does not allow for a paid staff of caregivers then the family members fill the need of the patient. Love may require us to clean up a mess not of our own making. Mothers know all about this sort of activity. God does too.

Adam made a mess when he joined his wife in rebellion against God. You and I were born into that mess. With His creation unable to clean up the mess, God sent His Son to do the job. On the cross, Jesus opened the way and then began cleaning up the mess through the Holy Spirit. Those reborn in Christ are still a bit of a mess. Even in our limited view we can see that not all is right with us. A moment of repentance, the blessing of salvation, or even the ceremony of baptism do not make us perfectly righteous in our behavior. Now, right standing with God is a different story, but those who follow Jesus do not always stay on the straight and narrow path. We have a mess and we are a mess, but Jesus is cleansing us over our lifetime. If a brother in Christ is taken home early in life, I kind of figure that he didn't need as much cleaning up as I do. Jesus will bring me home when He sees that I am ready and not when I think the time is right.

Praise God for the new day and, yes, for the ability, strength, and time to clean up the mess I made this morning.

Bucky