Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me”
I have a patio made of pavers in my backyard. As far as I know, it’s been there since the house was built
more than 50 years ago. Last year, the patio looked like the picture on the left. The one on the right was
after a worker spent hours power washing every stone and space between.
Now, I like moss….which is a good thing as much of my yard is made of moss! At the same time, these
pavers were made for something better. It was difficult to see the beauty of the pavers, their color, the
colored stones in them, because they were completely covered by something that blocked that beauty.
They needed to be cleaned. And they need a refresher cleaning on a regular basis.
Psalm 51 is one of my favorite scriptures about being made clean. Clean heart, cleansing from sin. The
Bible teaches that being made clean is both a cleansing from sin through God’s grace via Jesus AND an
ongoing spiritual renewal of the heart and mind. A pastor friend of mine recently put it this way. It’s like a
“Clean up on Aisle 3” in a grocery store. We each have a Clean Up in Aisle 3 within us. God cleans up
our sin by the life/death/resurrection of Jesus and continues to clean up and help us grow through the
Spirit working in us.
We are made in the image of God; made for something better than to be covered by sin and remaining in
harmful ways. We are meant to follow the ways of Jesus and show the beauty of God’s love in the world.
Is anyone up for a power washing? Spiritual power washing that is 🙂 .
Chaplain Karen Henderlong
