Cleaning the Crevices

 

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Today a glass jar accidently shattered in my laundry room.  As a result, I removed the shoe mats and vacuumed even those hard to reach corners.  At first I was irritated about the incident, I really did not plan on spending half an hour on that floor.  In the end I realized the whole incident was a blessing in disguise, the floor in there needs a good cleaning every once in a while.  

 

No one notices when you clean, they notice when you do not clean.  No one says, “My what a dust free counter you have!” but I am fairly certain that if you never wipe your counters or vacuum, sooner or later someone will comment, or at least think about what they would like to say if they could somehow do it tactfully.    

 

There are parts of my heart, like my laundry room, which I neglect.  I tend to neglect the areas of my house that no one sees, the rooms I can shut the door to when company is over.  My heart has neglected rooms of its own. A room with bitterness that would take some work to revamp, a closet of jealousy, the corner basement room where darkness hides my pride.  I feel as if I can close the door and no one will see. Still, it needs to be cleaned. Perhaps no one will take note of the cleaning, I suppose it is unfair to expect someone to comment on how I have rid my heart of the jealousy I previously hid well.  But I am fairly certain that if I never work on uprooting bitterness eventually someone will comment, or at least take note.  

 

I clean the crevices of my house for a couple of reasons.  I clean for other people, I do not want others to find the dust and I do not want my family to have to live in it.  I clean it for me, because after a while the mess drives me nuts. I am made in the image of God, who unlike the chaos sin brought into this world, is a God of order.  

 

Sometimes I move furniture and am surprised by the amount of debris that has collected.   Sometimes I soul search and am surprised by just how much unholiness is in my heart. God is not surprised by either, and He is willing to help me clean up both.  I hope to remember this the next time some glass shatters, and maybe even before something breaks. Deep cleaning is good for a rainy day, but then again, why wait for the rain?  Perhaps no one will notice the difference. Then again, perhaps I will.  

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