It Looked Clear To Me

This past week, Sally, a friend here in the UK, collected my mother and me from the airport.  We had been aware of recent weather and of the current forecast — rain, rain, and more rain.  However, to the delight of us all, when Sally arrived the sun had broken through the clouds, and the drive home was clear and full of sunshine all the way.

I sat in the passenger seat next to Sally while my mother took the seat in the back.  We were are three chatting, enjoying catching up, and soaking in the beautiful scenery along the way.  I looked out across familiar fields with sheep grazing.   Other fields held horses looking very snug with their winter coats fastened securely about them.

Suddenly, the road curved, leading the car in a direction that put the sun straight ahead.  The sun shone brightly through the windshield.  That’s when I saw it, and Sally did, too.

Driving along the way,  previous to that moment, the windshield appeared to be clear.  We could see just fine — or so we thought.  In fact, the sunshine blaring straight through revealed that the windshield was actually very smudged and dirty from all the rain of the week.   Sally and I were both surprised.

It was that moment of dirty windshield revelation when I thought of our lives as Christians.  We get forgiven of our sins, then we go out into our personal worlds where we meet with all kinds of situations.  Perhaps we tell a lie, just a little one.  Perhaps we are angered unnecessarily.  Perhaps we hold a grudge toward someone.  Perhaps we have broken a trust.  Perhaps we have gossiped, sharing some delicious morsel that we’ve heard about someone else.  The list of “perhaps” could go on and on.

We get soiled in the week as the rain of our wrong doings splashes into our lives.  Even so, we feel okay.  Things look pretty good.  Then, the Son shines in, revealing that things in our heart are not as they should be.  That’s when we have a wonderful choice available to us.  We can go on with dirty windshields, pretending that everything is really okay or we can go to our Heavenly Father and ask Him to forgive our wrongdoings.

What happens then?  The most wonderful and joyful thing takes place — Father Himself instantly cleans away the dirty smudges.  He cleans our hearts once more.  He loves us to Himself.  He fills us with joy and inner peace.

Don’t you feel good when you have a clean car to drive?  Don’t you love it when the windshield is absolutely clear?  It’s even more wonderful to have our lives cleaned up and our hearts made clear by God Himself.

When we ignore our dirty windshield,  it only gets worse with time.  It won’t clean itself.  The same with our lives.  The results of sin never goes away with time.  We only feel it worse as we drift further and further away from our Father.  Let’s all remember, with the start of a new year — go regularly to God’s windshield cleaning service.  It’s a joyful start to every day.

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