The Mother Hen

Mommy's Musings: Stovetop Wisdom
We have a black stove; it came with the house and when we first saw it we oohed and awed over its shiny newness. Fast forward 5 years later: I hate that stove. Its nearly impossible to keep clean. This morning I gave it a good scrub; I always wipe it down after making dinner but most times it looks worse than when I started but this morning was different. I wiped, I sprayed, I wiped and sprayed some more. I stood back and admired my sparkly stove and wondered how I would ever bear to cook on it again. I called Hot Jeff and the kids in to look at it, "Look at how clean the stove is" I proudly exclaimed, "toaster waffles for breakfast this morning!"

Hot Jeff poured me a cup of coffee and opened the kitchen blinds, the sun shone brightly on my filthy stove. What? Filthy stove? I just spent the last 30 minutes cleaning that sucker. The sunlight showed missed spots, streaks and paper towel residue that my kitchen lighting had blissfully hid...I put my coffee down and reached for my towel; I wasn't done yet.

Isn't this how we are as imperfect humans? Don't we do all the right things to clean ourselves up and make ourselves look presentable? We lose weight, we go to church, we read self-help books, the list goes on and on and we get to feeling pretty good about ourselves, maybe we even get to feeling really good and we begin to look down on others and then...the sunshine comes in. Or perhaps I should say the Son-shine, because when we look at ourselves in the real Light we see missed spots and streaks, don't we? Haven't we "all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God"? Here's the good news though; the second half of that verse, God has provided a way for us to be cleansed, we don't have to stay in our blemished state: [we] "are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood."

I will cook on that stove again and it will continue to look un-new and dirty (on a good day). And as for me, I too remain messy, imperfect and scarred...its a good thing I have a Savior.