From the time our kids were 6 and 8 years old up to 11 and 13, they had some strange ways of cleaning their rooms. The two weird ones were the two oldest ones, Milky and Gam. Milky, the ever-creative one, always had an ‘interpretive’ way of what cleaning meant. The first time we encountered her ‘non-kosher’ ways was when she was about 5-6 years old. There were probably 9-13 toys on the floor with pants, blouses, and other goodies strewn about. l gave them all 15 minutes to clean up. Upon returning, the mess had multiplied about 40 times over! I was upset! I couldn’t believe it! I called my wife over to see what this room now looked like! I don’t think the floor tiles were visible! She was full ripe for a spanking; but wait!! She had a plan! There was a full and logical explanation for this chaos! “In order for me to clean, I first have to empty every chest drawer and every dresser drawer, and I have to dump all the toys on the floor. This way, I get to reorganize everything and return them to where they belong,” she explained. She was spared and given another hour to demonstrate her skills. She did it although the thought of getting that spanking made her rush it through. And so, the expected unexpected surprises made their way into our home.
Our son had his own creativity as well! His room had bunk beds with the bottom bed empty. His first stunt was to pull a bedsheet over the bottom bed covering the side too. I walked in, open some drawers and found all up to par. As I reviewed the room, I noticed he didn’t move from in front of his bed…. When I moved him and lifted the sheet, wow! everything was on that bed!! He hadn’t cleaned at all. Another time, everything again looked cleaned and legit, but upon further inspection, just like on TV, he wouldn’t move his outstretched arm from leaning on the closet. I asked him to move and when I opened the door, everything poured right on down to the floor! I learned that whether toys were swept under the bed, covered with clothing, hidden under the sheets, or whether the youngest child was missing because Milky made her a “Why didn’t I think of that before?” bed by hiding her in a towel-lined chest drawer, and pulled her out so I could see her ingenuity, that our kids could come up with all sorts of things to cover up their responsibilities, or lack thereof.
One day, according to Scripture, Jesus faced a similar situation: The holy temple courts were filled with corrupt leaders and vendors. People found shortcuts for their responsibilities. If someone forgot to drop by Lamb-mart to pick up a perfect lamb for their family sacrifice, they could get one of those ‘dent’ models at the temple; except for a few blemishes, it was just as good, they reasoned. The bible shares that in past times before Jesus’ days, the people viewed serving God as a weariness (Malachi 1:13).
Armed with a whip, Jesus, with righteous anger, overthrew the vendors for polluting His Father’s house (John 2:13-17). We can look at that in disbelief and marvel at how some people could do such a thing. Yet, we do the same. We’re good at disguising our cleaning. We’ll sweep our junk, our toys, our anger, our jealousies under our beds or in the closets of our minds. We know we anger our Father, but we figure He’ll forgive us. At best, we hope He doesn’t look in our secret chambers to discover what’s in there. Here’s a secret: If we could go back in time to before we were born, or before time even existed, we’d find that God already knew what things we will try to get away with. We can’t hide anything from Him. It’s like suspecting our son may have eaten 8 of the 12 Oreos we left in a pack and so we figure we can ask him. He’ll deny it with the most serious and somber face available. But then he smiles slightly as if to say, “I’m so good, I’ve got this” and then you notice the black teeth and tongue… All we wanted was for him to come clean. That’s what God wants. He doesn’t want or need your Oreos but He does want your life. He’ll clean it out much better than we ever could. He has a plan. He has a drawer for every toy and garment; not for hiding your kids. He won’t sweep anger or envy under the bed; He’ll remove them completely. You’ll feel tons better knowing you’ll have the seal of a clean house inspection.
God Bless