God is Not in the Bathtub Cleaning Business

The bathtub in the kid's bathroom is pink.  I have no idea how it came to be pink and I don't know how to get the pink to go away.  The only thing I can come up with is that the shower curtain that has pink on it has somehow faded onto the tub.  I cannot get the pink to go way.  I cannot get the few little paint spots on the bottom of the tub to go away from when we painted a room three years ago.  I can use cleaner and scrub and scrub and scrub.  I can get soap scum and hair to go away.  I cannot get pink that I have no definite confirmation of it's source or paint to go away.

It is interesting don't you think?  I don't usually go into the kid's bathroom except to mop.  The rest of the bathroom cleaning  falls on the kids to do.  I happened to go in there because my restroom was occupied the other night and I didn't want to wait.  As I looked around I noticed the tub was pink and there were streaks of yellow on the wall that I just painted last Christmas break.  I still don't know what was on the wall I only know that I was able to get it off of the wall.  As the teenage girls are the ones who have custody of that bathroom I cannot pin that on a little boy with bad aim.

I was flabbergasted and a bit afraid of what else I would find in that restroom and I even told a few friends about it and then as I sat down today it occurred to me how very much that bathroom reflects what we try to do with God.

I have never met anyone besides Jesus who was without sin.  In fact, I am quite ashamed yet confident in the fact that I probably sin daily and sometimes without knowledge of it.  I have a problem.  I tend to turn to food or friends before I turn to God.  I am like a child on a rewards system for my good behavior.  Are you?  Do you ever seek rewards for a job well done?  Have you ever rewarded yourself with something like dessert or a night out for an achievement?

On the flip side of that when you sin do you automatically go to God to seek forgiveness or do you try to hide it and hope it will go way?  You do everything that you can think of to erase it or cover it up and yet there it is a big pink spot on an otherwise white bathtub.  A big X on an otherwise perfect record.  But our records aren't perfect and no amount of covering up or trying to erase it will ever make them that way.  We are perfectly incapable of accomplishing the task....alone.

There is good news for us.  Jesus.  Jesus came to be a light unto the world (John 12:46).  Jesus came to save us from our sins.  With Jesus and only Jesus can we be cleansed of our sins.  John knew this.  In John 1:29 it says, The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"  John had been preaching the good news and baptizing with water but he knew that Jesus would come and baptize with the Holy Spirit.

John knew what we need to know.  We need to know we can't do it alone.  We need to know that we need Jesus.  We need to know that Jesus can take away all of our sins and make us white as snow.  His blood paid the price and without Him we can never be truly clean no matter how hard we try.  You haven't done anything that is so bad that God cannot forgive you.  He loves you.  Micah 7:18 says:  Who is a God like you, who pardons sins and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance?  You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.

God is not human.  He doesn't hold grudges against his children who love him and confess and ask for forgiveness.  I hope you will come to know him more and trust him just as I continue to work on on doing.  I am human and I am a sinner.  God knows this about me but I believe He loves me anyway.

In case you don't know, I just found out that apparently there is a concoction that is sold in stores that will take any stain out of the shower.  I'm not sure it has been tested on pink from unknown sources, but unlike trying to take away our own sins, I think it is worth a try.  While God will clean you from the inside out, He is not in the bathtub cleaning business.