Poop, People, and Looking Like Jesus
People are not the cleanest mammals. They tend to make messes throughout their lives, and living with them isn't always fun or easy. A positive attitude can disappear when faced with cleaning up a big mess.Recently, I came across several Scripture passages that immediately triggered two memories.
- Psalm 51:7, "Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry" (Message Bible)
- John 13—the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet and then instructing them to wash one another's feet.
Memories flooded my mind, as often happens during my morning devotionals. I remembered walking into the bedroom of my little daughter and finding her crib smeared with the remains of a filthy diaper. Like a princess, this smiling toddler sat in her crib equally covered with the remains of the same diaper.The second visual was my dad sleeping in the facility where he eventually died. He looked peaceful and comfortable in his clean pajamas and fresh bed linens. Dad had people who cared for his messes with a positive attitude. I was very thankful.I will continue to make messes for God to clean up from birth to death. Some of these messes will be life lessons as when my toddler explored her world and my dad was learning to let go of his.Other messes are more grown-up, which makes them without excuse. Either way, God cleans me up, and His family helps scrub my dirty laundry and my dirty feet.Do you nurture a positive attitude when cleaning up people's poop and washing their feet? Not a real tidy question, but a necessary one to ask.If you want to look like Jesus, ya gotta get into the messes of people's lives. Care to comment?(If you wonder which of my six children was the toddler in this story, you can check her out at: https://www.maryweber.com/.)
In Him together, Susan Gaddis