Andrew, The Clean One

This is Andrew. Andrew is 22 months old. Andrew loves to be clean.

Andrew cannot stand to have anything on his hands (except ketchup & chocolate, which he likes to lick off) or his clothes or the table around his plate... Sometimes I wish that he would just go jump in a mud puddle (and I know the day is coming when I will probably beg him to be clean). Sometimes I call him "little Monk"!

As much as Andrew loves to be clean, lately he has not been enjoying actually taking a bath. Oh, he loves getting in the tub and playing in the water. It's the scrubbing part that he actually has come to dislike. Andrew loves the appearance of being clean, but the process to get there is what seems unpleasant at times.

I am like that as well. I love the appearance of holiness and I am really good at appearing holy on the outside. While I long to be really clean I hate going through the process of getting there. Being holy often means giving up things that I would like to hang on to (even though I know better). Being holy means admitting that I have messed up, offended people, done stupid stuff or hurt those that I love.

When God moves me through the process of being made clean it means having to admit that I am dirty. That is not pleasant, but it is necessary. Without acknowledging the need for cleansing and submitting myself to being made clean, I will never get there. The good news is that God is committed to my holiness -- to the point that He sent His Son to be holy for me and to become dirty for me, so that I could be found clean.
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"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." -- Matthew 23:25-28 (ESV)