Looking for Dirt…

Several months back, a friend was hospitalized after a trip to the ER.  As she waited for her test results, she started visually scanning her room looking for signs of uncleanliness, and that is when she caught sight of a cobweb near the floor. With several tissues in hand, she climbed from her bed, got down on her hands and knees to do a little cleaning.  It was just about that time when a nurse came in, finding her in a very vulnerable position, as she explained to the nurse what she was doing.  Now I can only imagine what that nurse was thinking; I know what I was thinking when the story was relayed to me. 

According to my friend, the nurse laughed at her desire to have a cobweb free hospital room. I can imagine that nurse’s laughter being a bit more on the nervous side than the jovial side though.  Can you visualize the look on that nurse’s face, probably wondering whether my friend was actually sick or in need of a psychoanalyst instead of a physician.  I for one do not care about cobwebs in the corner of my house, let alone in a hospital room, at least not when I’m sick. 

As taken aback as that nurse may or may not have been by my friend’s need to clean, I wasn’t a bit surprised by it.   After all, my friend carries a limitless supply of anti-bacterial handwipes in her purse, and in her car.  In fact, I’m convinced she owns stock in Wet Ones. She’s consistently offered her wipes to me during our shopping sprees, which I kindly decline.  I’ve survived years of touching doorknobs and grocery cart handles to feel safe, but that doesn’t keep my friend from offering me a healthy dose of her anti-bacterial lotion every time we go somewhere.  I probably cause her a great deal of angst when I touch a door handle at a department store, and then scratch my face without taking her up on her offer to use a handwipe.

I grew up in a time when car seats weren’t a thing, kids eating dirt was not life threatening, and singing happy birthday was reserved for parties, and not as a guide for how long we should wash our hands before rinsing them. For those who are getting a bit grossed out by thinking that I never wash my hands, and that I never clean my house, allow me to clarify. When my house is dirty, I clean it, and when my hands are dirty, I wash them. 

Some-time last year, during a trip together with that once hospitalized friend, before we even had our suitcases unloaded from the car, she started detailing the area, complaining about the dirty windows, and the dust inside the window sills of our rental house.  She was so busy looking for dirt that she hadn’t bothered to admire the beautiful landscape around us. Quite similar to judging a person’s character by the rumors that we’ve heard about them, or worse, simply by their appearance through our judgmental eyes.  I think we’ve all been guilty of that at one time or another.

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:3-5)

I remember a time when I encountered a young man whose body piercings, dark clothing and ink black hair and matching fingernails left me feeling a bit offput by his appearance.  I was visually judging him without having a clue as to what type of person he actually was.  Thankfully, God blessed me with the opportunity to get to talk openly with that young man, and beneath that visual façade that I had judged so wrongly, was a vulnerable and amazing person.  I confessed to him my judgement of his appearance, and instead of placing me in a category with all the others who’d judged him so wrongly, he was gracious enough to accept the apology that I offered him.

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27)

If only we took that scripture to heart.  Can you imagine how amazing our lives would be if we sought out the image of God all around us, and instead of looking for dirt, we actually saw the beauty in all of God’s children…

Pretty amazing, I imagine; it would be pretty amazing. . .