Clean Steps (Eph. 5:25-27)

Yesterday, when I went out to water my plants, I saw the condition of my patio, littered with puppy debris and decided to hose off my side of the steps. It was filthy. But I couldn’t see just how filthy the step was until I washed it with the water. Then the filth became apparent as brown, muddy water gushed down toward the concrete below. Each step became a little dirtier until the last one, which created a mud bath fit for a small pig. All the clean water rushing down collected the mud at the bottom, and I had to work extra hard on it. Patiently drilling it with the water from my hose until it finally quit delivering mud onto the carport beyond.

I stood there with a hose in my hand thinking how much that is like my life after I came to Christ as a child. My life was dirty even then, but I didn’t realize how much it needed cleaning at the time. As the Word has washed me over the years, my life has changed. I would read the scripture and it would reveal dirt. The Holy Spirit would whisper or shout, depending on the circumstances, and I would have to deal with the problem at hand. First, I confessed my sin, and the Lord was faithful and righteous to forgive my sin (1 Jn. 1:9). Then, I had to begin walking differently, avoiding the mud. As I did so, my life started looking cleaner on the outside as He gradually cleaned up the inside. But there is still dirt, deep ground-in sludge in my heart, that He is washing clean as I sit before Him daily letting His truth pour over me and steep inside. Washed by the water of the Word.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless (Eph. 5:25-27)

I have often teased about my husband “washing” me often through the years of our marriage. It is truth. It has always been needed. It is good. He has washed me with it when I couldn’t wash myself. When I have misplaced my want-to, when things were so hard all I wanted to do was escape them and crawl up into a small ball and sit alone in a dark room, when I veered a degree too far of the path put me on a dangerous trajectory, forgetting to trust and acknowledge God and lean on Him for direction. He has washed me until the Spirit inside me convicted me, and I realized what I had done and repented and turned back to the Word of my own volition. He will need to wash me again. Of that I have no doubt. Husbands who wash their wives with the water of the Word are precious gifts from God. Don't doubt it! Fortunately for me, my husband is now preaching, and I get to be washed twice each week with the wisdom of the Word straight from his lips. (And it's pretty awesome that it is not JUST directed at me. . . but with the same effects as if it were. LOL!)

The older I get (like my steps, which are about the same age), the more I realize how much I need that washing and crave it. I want to be clean when I stand before Him, purified, refined, fully sanctified. Someday, the bottom step will be clean, and I will stand before Him as I watch the last of the mud drip away. 

Lord, let it be so.