Underneath the Dirt
I like to clean. I like to clean just about everything. Luckily for me, I get to work in an environment that fosters this joyful pastime for me. It’s incredible. Just a few weeks ago, I got work alongside a team of hardworking individuals as we deep cleaned (or “spring cleaned” if you will) our entire store. It was quite the process, as we were down on our hands and knees from as early as 6am, scrubbing and polishing every surface of the store. It was tiring but rewarding.
There is nothing more satisfactory than seeing something clean, fresh, bright and like new.
The walls in our store are white. It’s interesting, because most days you wouldn’t know that. By the time we went to clean the walls of our store a few weeks ago, the whiteness of it had been covered and clouded by the dust, the sauce, the oil, the flour – all the stuff that gets tossed around and used in our store that doesn’t immediately get wiped up.
But after a while, once we had scrubbed and scraped at every surface possible, it was like a brand-new store. It honestly looked like we had new walls installed in the span of two days. That’s the difference our hard work made.
I stood back and admired what we had accomplished, myself and two other individuals, and a thought struck me almost immediately: this must be what Jesus feels like when He sees us, all messy and broken, but uses His blood to cleanse us and make us new. I couldn’t help but see the comparison, in this every day, ordinary task.
Isn’t it true that sometimes we get things in life thrown at us – from getting assaulted by other people, to experiencing a divorce in our family, to battling an eating disorder, to struggling with insecurities, to dealing with depression, suicide, drugs, pornography, alcohol, addictions – and we really just become a mess of things as a result?
What was once a beautiful, perfect little baby is now a young adult with messy issues. Like the wall: what was once a beautifully, perfect white wall became covered with the everyday dirt and dust of the working environment.
But, it didn’t stay like that. We saw a dirty wall and wanted the satisfaction of seeing it cleaned. My boss, who gave us the go-ahead to take part in this ask, knew what was underneath the dirt because he was the one that had it installed. He knew what it could be. He knew what it looked like before all the dirt made its beauty unrecognizable. He knew because he had seen it before.
That’s what I imagine its like for us with Jesus. He knows, God knows, the potential that is within us – that is underneath all of the issues, addictions and insecurities we have – because He created us.
He has seen us already at our worst, and loved us then, because He created us, but He also knows that we can be so much more. He wants to come in and clean us, so we are radiating His love to the rest of the world. He wants to wipe every dirty thought, every messy situation, and every broken heart away, so you can shine and sparkle the way you were meant to. He knows what’s underneath.
He knows how great you can be because He saw you already at your most perfect and vulnerable state when He knit you inside your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13).
But, even the wall isn’t going to stay perfectly clean just because it was cleaned one time. It will take someone to clean it at least once a day to keep it in the condition it looks like now. But, even if it doesn’t get cleaned daily, anytime someone does want to wipe it down, the beauty from underneath will radiate every time. These walls can never be cleaned too many times because something will make it dirty at least once a day – that’s just the kind of environment we work in.
Even with all the dirt and dust that gets thrown at it, there is nothing more satisfying that doing the work that’s necessary to get it back to its pristine condition.
How much more so will God extend His hand to clean you? How much more satisfying do you think God delights in cleansing you through the blood of Jesus? Wiping away the dirty thoughts, the messy situations you find yourself in sometimes, the insecurities that weigh you down. How much do you think He delights in getting rid of all that dirt and dust, so your beauty and His love can shine through you?
2 Corinthians 5:17 says that, if any of us are in Christ, we are a new creation.
Being in Christ, Jesus can take all the dirt and grime away, so we essentially look like “new walls.” We will look the same physically, but we will radiate a certain newness that will permeate and shine to those around us. Even to those who didn’t have a hand in the cleansing process.
Even the people I worked with that didn’t do the physical, hard, labour of cleaning, they still noticed the difference. Because it was unmistakable. It was undeniable. Everything just shone more brightly. The whole store looked different.
That is what happens with you when you let Jesus come in and restore you; when you let Him remove the filth. He will make you look like new and it will be obvious to everyone around you. God will look down on you, with pride in His heart at the work He created and the cleaning that took place to get you into the best condition.
We will never be able to avoid the deceit and sinfulness of this fallen world. It is all around us. We are humans and we were born sinners. But, that doesn’t mean Jesus can’t come in and cleanse us each day of our sins. In fact, I bet that’s what He would love to do, more than anything. He says in Matthew 11:28 that we are to go to Him when we are weary, so He can give us rest. Additionally, in John chapter 15, Jesus says that “[we] are already clean because of the word [He] has spoken.”
With the things, the people, the situations, and the circumstances life throws at the you, the ever-growing pile of filth that seems to keep growing on you, ask Jesus to cleanse you, so the clean purified, radiant you can shine through. That God’s love would cause you to sparkle, and others would take notice as a result.
There is nothing too dirty He can’t clean. Nothing too messy that He can’t wipe away. Every time you let Him clean you up, He will reveal the beauty and perfection that He created in you.
Something that I do my best to pray every day is: Jesus, help me to see me the way that you see me.
Because He can see under the dirt, filth, and grime. He can see you for who really are. He can cleanse every part of you to make you new. He can if you will let Him, and it will be a noticeable change even to those around you.