Clean Windows and Clear View

Last weekend, Larry spent hours washing and cleaning the insides and outsides of the windows and screens on the bottom floor of the house.  The pollen and dirt seemed to have been in abundance this year and left their mark.  My nightly lizard visitor, on the kitchen screen, will no longer have as much camouflage.  After taking off the screens, scrubbing them with soap and water, and letting them dry, Larry tackled the windows.  The water was sprayed on them; they were washed with soap, rinsed off, and dried.  What a big difference it made on the view from the inside.  Whereas Larry used the hose to wash the outside of the windows, he needed to use a different method for the inside.  Although the inside part had very few marks, the windows still benefited from being cleaned.  What a difference in the view now.  The windows sparkle, one hardly notices the screens, and the colors and scenery are more vivid and inviting.

Larry’s desire to have clean windows reminded me of “Beach Week.”  Each summer, four of our families, along with Mom and Dad, rented a beach house in Galveston for a week to vacation together.  After the luggage, groceries, and toys were unloaded, Daddy would get out the glass cleaner and clean the dirt and salt off of the windows in the living area.  Even though we were only going to be there for 7 days, he wanted us to enjoy the view.

Just like cleaning the house windows, it’s important to make sure that my life is a clean vessel both inside and out.  Sometimes it seems that making sure the outside of me is clean and presentable, the part people see first, is the easier part when compared to the more difficult, tedious, and time consuming task of inner cleaning.  But like the windows in our home, the windows of my heart, soul, mind, and eyes need to continually be cleaned, both inside and out, so I can clearly see the way that God sees and so that others can readily see the difference Jesus makes shining through me. 

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.

Matthew 23:27

Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”

Luke 11:36

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6