Wash and make
yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. (Isaiah 1:16)
Up north when I garden, I’m likely to have to wash my arms
up to my elbows and my clothes. Maybe I’ll have to wash my face and neck. The soil
has a lot of clay and compost, so it behaves itself, so to speak. It may
require a scrub brush to get the skin it touches clean, but it doesn’t get all
over. The plants I deal with also seem
to be fairly well-behaved. Sure, they may reseed themselves and populate the
entire neighborhood, but they don’t usually stick to your clothing.
In Florida, the soil is sand. Chances are that if you pull weeds, you’ll
end up with sand in your hair, on your face, in your mouth, in your clothes, etc.
It doesn’t come out of clothing as readily as I’d like, but it comes off the
skin more easily than clay dirt, does.
Unfortunately, when you garden – and when you live life - you get dirty.
The dirt from the garden is the easy one to clean. Washing your soul is one of
those basics we need to master. How often it needs to be done, and how challenging
it is to clean the grime from under our fingernails, or inside of our hearts doesn’t
matter. It has to be done.
This means we need to make sure we’re paying attention to the evil in
our lives, and actively seek to wash it away. No excuses. No, “I was born this
way.” No, “I can’t help it,” even if you can’t help it. It needs to be washed
in the blood of the Lamb, confessed to our Lord, and if we need to make
restitution or apologize, we need to do so.
It’s basic. It’s very difficult, but it’s necessary.
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