Soul Cleaning

Whenever I (Aimee) brush my teeth it always makes my mouth feel amazing. I find the actual process soothing for some reason (maybe it’s the repetition). But when I’m done. Wow. My mouth is so clean and fresh. All the grime of the day is gone and I just feel wonderful. And what’s funny is that usually it isn’t as if I walk around after a meal with my mouth feeling disgusting. My mouth doesn’t feel icky. And I make sure that I’m not walking around with food stuck in my teeth. I don’t feel gross, yet when I’m clean, the difference is like night and day and I almost wonder why I waited so long after eating to brush when I could have felt this amazing sooner!

 

As I was brushing my teeth and thinking of this, and thinking about how great it makes me feel when my mouth is all clean, I started thinking about how Jesus cleans us.

 

We walk around and, for the most part, we don’t feel dirty and disgusting even though we are. We sin all the time. We make bad choices, we reject God, we choose the world, and all the while our souls are getting dirty and stained more than our teeth after eating Oreo cookies (if you can’t picture what I mean, eat an Oreo and then go look at your teeth in a mirror). The point is, we may not feel gross and dirty, but we are. And we need to be cleaned.

 

Jesus died on the cross so that His blood could wipe away our sins. He’s our soul-brush, if you will follow the metaphor with me. He brushes away all of the grime of the day so that we can feel amazing again! But unlike how we need to brush our teeth every day, Jesus cleanses us once and for all (check out John 13:2-11, taking particular note of v.10, or check out the discussion in Hebrews 10:1-18). So that after we’ve been cleaned by Jesus’ blood, when we get dirty again with sin, all we have to do is admit our wrong and seek forgiveness and it’s like the dirt just falls off. No more brushing required. Grace and mercy keep away the yucky sin-plaque build-up on our souls.

 

Those who don’t know the Lord don’t know how truly dirty their souls are. They don’t turn to the Lord because they don’t realize their need for Him. It’s like someone who never brushed their teeth because no one ever told them what a difference it would make for the health of their teeth and their health overall.

 

Those who do know the Lord, who mess up, and then who walk around in denial of their sin, or are afraid or too ashamed to admit what they’ve done wrong are like people who don’t brush cause they don’t want to admit they ate that candy, even though it’s gumming up their teeth and anybody who tries to talk to them can see the evidence right there.

 

Have I carried the metaphor too far? Have I lost you or are you following me?

 

Do you tell your friends about Jesus? Have you told the people in your life about the man who can cleanse them of all the dirt in their lives? Would you tell your friend if they had a big piece of green broccoli stuck in their teeth but shy away from pointing out the giant black sin that’s staining them?

 

How often do you walk around dirty because of pride or fear? What makes you think that you’re too dirty to be cleaned? What makes you think you’re so clean that you don’t need the Cleaner now and then?

 

Just something that I was thinking about. I hope that it gave you something to think about too.