Dirty Hands...

A Deep Cleaning!

Psalm 51:7 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)

7 Remove my sin and make me pure.[a] Wash me until I am whiter than snow!

Proverbs 20:9 New International Version (NIV)

9 Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”?

My son loves to wash his hands. I don’t know if it is the joy of splashing water all over the place, the sticky-gooey feeling of the soap against his hands, or the thought that his once dirty hands are clean that matters most. The interesting thing is that when I put the drop of soap into the palm of his hand, he quickly smashes it into the palm of his other hand and just rubs them together.  He never washes the back of his hands or in between his fingers.

Here is where daddy steps in. I always add some soap to my hands then lather both of our hands together. Although my son does a decent job by himself, dad’s hands are a bit bigger and little more thorough. Together we achieve a deeper clean.

That’s how I see the Father in heaven working with us. In Proverbs 20:9, Solomon says that none of us in this life can take credit for making and maintaining our cleanliness. It is the grace of God that has allowed us to become clean. The Son of God took our dirtiest of deeds and washed us in His blood.

When King David lamented in his transgression, He begged God to cleanse Him. He knew that a renewed state of mind could only be accomplished through God. He didn’t want a quick wash off – David wanted a deep cleaning.

My challenge to you this week is to consider your cleaning techniques. Although your work is good – in order to get the crevices that hold the dirt you can’t or won’t remove – you need a bigger and more thorough set of hands. The kind of hands that flung the moon and the stars into the sky, the hands that healed and multiplied, the hands that held a sinless man to a cross, and the hands that snatched the keys to hell and death.

You can truly be clean if you let your Daddy help…