White No More

There are a few things in life that you just know that you do well.   You might hear compliments and tuck them away somewhere down deep and tell yourself, “Thank you.  Yes, I know.”

One of mine has always been that my whites are brilliantly white.   Silly?---  yes, but seriously a compliment I used to hear often.   I get my laundry prowess from my mother.   She is able to launder out just about any nasty stain and is the queen of the whites, and so, of course I have white whites.

I USED TO have white whites.    Southern Colorado front range living comes with an exorbitant amount of wind and dust and dirt and mud.   The days of white shoes and choosing white clothing to wear became quickly rethought within a few months of my moving here.  

Besides the wind and the dirt, it is no secret that our well water has challenged us through these past just over 2 ½ years.  We have a beautiful , elaborate, and expensive system now in place to filter nearly everything out of our water.   Our water is now plentiful and clear.   It has not always been that way, and our light colored clothing can attest to it.   No matter what detergent or “oxiclean-like” miracle laundry soap I have tried, our whites have been a horribly ugly grey or sometimes a dull brown.  When I tried to use bleach, they became grey/brown with an added weird pink tinge.  

Pride is a strange animal.   I never really realized how important the noticing of my clean laundry had been to me.  Laundry is especially weird in that I can’t hide it—people see the clothes my family and I wear.  We parade them daily.   I can choose to buy darker colors, but all of the lighter clothes simply morph into a grey palate, and I have had to be ok with it. 

Our water is now much better.  The dirt, mud, and wind are still around.   My whites are now pretty white, but they are not like they used to be.  We are in a different place and time in our lives.  I am not being looked down on for my laundering skills, but I am also not being praised.   That’s how most of life is--- do your best and go with it, and leave your pride at the door.   There is much more to life than white clothes, and the things we do well are often not really about us but more about the circumstances surrounding us.  I still wash my clothes the exact same way I have for all of my adult life—but my environmental surroundings and the water to wash them in has changed.  Looking at my almost white clothes is a refreshing reminder of my shortfall to perfection in every area and another visual for me of the reliance I must have on the only one who is perfect.

 Malachi 3:2  “But who can endure the day of his coming?  Who can stand when he appears?  For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. “

 Isaiah 1:18  “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be white as snow;  though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

Romans 13:14  “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

 

 

Weak

I was able to attend Science Day this past week with our fifth grader and his class.   In the wooded mountain park, our first station was under the pavilion next to the creek.   There was  a man there from the Nature and Raptor Center who had three cages of birds of prey.   We were only allotted enough time to see one of the three, and the children got to vote on a nocturnal predator, diurnal predator, or a scavenger.  The vote was split, but diurnal predator won.  I anticipated a hawk and was honestly hoping for one of the other two categories.  I see upwards of twenty hawks every day.

He pulled from the cage a peregrine falcon.   He told us many facts and asked many questions. The peregrine falcon is the fastest bird and can fly over 200mph in a dive for prey.  I was intrigued.

Then he began to tell this particular falcon's story.  We all listened intently and were amazed with the long list of her lifetime achievements.  She was a mascot for the Air Force Academy and had flown in the pregame shows as a star.  When she was too old for the show, she became a part of the breeding program at the Academy and had been integral in the repopulation of the dwindling species.  When she was beyond breeding years, she was sent to the Rescue where she is now a teaching aide. 

The kids began to become a little restless--- not restless like kids get, but restless with the facts in her story.  They began to ask the handler questions.  "Are her wings injured?"  He answered that she is not injured in any way.   "If her wings are fine, why doesn't she try to fly away?" 

He explained then that she has lived her life in cages.   She hasn't flown in so many years, she no longer has the muscular strength to fly.    The pavilion went silent.  I felt myself tearing up.  She can't do what she was designed to do.  She has lost the muscles from years of cage living.  She has to be able to remember the years of flying and soaring.  While she has had a long list of "noble" bird jobs in our human world, she can't fly. 

I am afraid we as believers often get used to cage living.  We are so content with being fed and doing good things, that we forget our Designer made us to soar.  Our muscles are wasting away while we are doing good and noble things, and we are forgetting how to fly.  We may even be forgetting that we want to fly.    It is so easy to be content managing the lists of good Christian things we are to do and miss the joy of knowing the Creator and following Him wherever He takes us.  God help me to not be content with the cage. 

Isaiah 40:29-31 "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;  but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

The Buried

There is a rule at our house that we and all guests must follow:   everyone must wear shoes at all times outside.   We live in a windy and dry place.  Rain is rare and when it comes it is often a deluge.   The homestead on which we live is also a little over 100 years old.   When the rain and the winds come, there is unearthed a plethora of history. 

There will appear from under the ground items that have been buried for who knows how long.  We have huge chains, metal dinner plates, glass bottles, license plates, washers and tools, dipsticks, wheels, and many, many more treasures that have appeared from below.    There is even a buried car in the field.  The boys excavated a portion of it—it is an ongoing dig.
 
About every month or so, and more often where there is some rain or a wind storm, we must walk the dogs’ yard and pick up pieces of things that might hurt them.   We typically will use a Frisbee upside down as a plate to hold the pieces and will collect one or two frisbees full of glass and metal pieces.    Obviously the previous owners through the years used the land as their own garbage disposal facility.   That is all good when the dirt stays as a cover.   When the rain or wind moves the dirt, the unexposed becomes exposed and can become dangerous.

I suppose it is much like the junk and the sins in our lives.   We like to clean them out from time to time, but we often just seem to chunk them out back and hide them out of sight.   When the storms of life come, those jagged pieces and broken chains and rusty sharp objects poke their heads up out of their slumbering spot and what was unnoticed becomes painful.  

We must sweep the yard--- look for the junk and get it out of there.  No more hiding it.  No more pretending that it will never be found or that it will never be exposed.   All things (all deeds) come to light when they are in the presence of the Holy God.    We must have Jesus do the yard sweep.  He will haul it all away as far away as the east is from the west when we confess and repent.   We need only to let Him deal with it for good, instead of us hiding it thinking it will remain hidden.

 

   Luke 12:2  “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made  known.”

Hebrews 4:13  “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.  Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”