Clean

I’m one of the weird people that actually like cleaning house.  There’s just something therapeutic about it – almost like gardening.  Not long ago my husband bought one of those Shark steam cleaner things for tile and wood/laminate floors.  At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it or not, because you can only put water in it - no PineSol or LySol or Mr. Clean – when I clean I want my house to smell clean as well as look clean.  To my surprise I absolutely love this thing and will probably wear it out in no time. 

I spent all day this past Saturday cleaning house and doing laundry.  I had finished everything and only had to steam clean the tile floors.  I filled up the Shark steam cleaner container with water, plugged it in, selected “scrub” on the dial, and waited the 60 seconds it takes for the water to heat up.  While the water was heating up, preparing to turn into steam, I eyed my kitchen floor – it was filthy.  I couldn’t wait to run that steamer over that tile floor, cleaning and sanitizing it – just the anticipation of how clean my kitchen floor was going to be made me almost giddy.

Yes, I love cleaning, and yes, I realize I’m weird and there is probably a very technical, medical term for this ailment – don’t judge.

As I ran that steamer over the floor, up next to the baseboards, I hummed a little tune, watching as the steam and pressure cleaned and sanitized my grimy kitchen floor.  You can imagine my surprise when, as I was doing the floor in front of the pantry, a bug came wriggling out of somewhere between the baseboard and the floor.  There I stood, holding the Shark steam cleaner and staring at this bug that was crawling all over my newly cleaned floor, when another bug came out of the same place, then another.  I guess the power and the heat from the steam was too much for them.  I killed those 3 bugs and made a mental note to tell Mike that it is time to exterminate again, and went on to tackle the living room floor.

While cleaning the living room tiles, I got to thinking about those bugs, and how I never would have seen them if I hadn’t been steam cleaning that floor.  They were there all along, I just didn’t know it.

 The power and heat of that steam not only cleaned all the surface dirt on contact, but it also brought those nasty bugs that were hiding underneath the floor to the surface pretty quickly as well, and I was able to get my floor as clean as possible. 

It reminded me of the power of the blood of Jesus.  When we acknowledge and accept the fact that Jesus was the perfect Son of God, who actually chose to die for us so that we could live forever, and ask Him to come into our heart and take over our lives, His blood automatically covers our sins – all of them, not just some of them – not just the bad things on the outside that everyone can see, His blood reaches deep into our heart, into the secret places that only God Himself knows about, and He cleans it all up, bugs and all – every bit of it – we’re justified through Him.  The Bible says that He washes us white as snow.  There’s not a place in our heart that the blood of Jesus cannot reach – His blood has that much power. 

When the Father looks at me, He doesn't see all my wretchedness and sin, he only sees the blood of His Son, which has cleansed me and made me white as snow - Isaiah 1:18.

I can’t tell you how, just writing about this, makes me feel.  My eyes are filled with tears, I am so grateful that the Father would love me enough (who am I?) to send his perfect Son to die for me, and I’m humbled by the fact that even though I don’t deserve it, I’m going to live in heaven, in a mansion, that God Himself built especially for me.  I’m going to be able to see Jesus face to face, I’m going to be able to laugh and hug and visit with my family and my friends who are already in heaven.

I’m going to live forever, and it’s all because of one thing:

The blood of Jesus washes me……the blood, it is my victory.