Create
a Clean Heart in Me
Read: Psalm 51:1-2, 10
The story is told of a young couple
who moved into a new neighborhood. One morning, early after they were
settled in, and while they were eating breakfast, the young woman
sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside. “That laundry isn’t
very clean,” she told her husband. “She obviously doesn’t know
how to do laundry correctly. Perhaps she needs a better laundry
detergent.”
Her husband looks on but remains
silent. Every time the neighbor hangs her wash to dry, the young
woman makes the same comments. About a month later, she is surprised
to see a nice clean, bright wash hanging on the line and calls it to
her husband’s attention. “Look! She has finally learned how to do
laundry correctly! I wonder who taught her?”
The woman’s husband replies, “I
got up early this morning and washed our windows.” And so it is
with life…what we see when watching others depends on the clarity
of the window through which we look.
The psalm appointed for Ash
Wednesday serves to prepare us for the Lenten journey. It is a song
and prayer of one who is willing to admit all of one’s limitations
and failings. If we are willing to make the words of the psalmist our
words, we recognize that it is only with God’s mercy that we are
“washed clean” and gain a “new and right spirit.”
Psalm 51 is an invitation to “be
reconciled to God.” And it happens as a result of God’s
willingness to forgive; and the result is a new creation. When we
free ourselves through confession and repentance, especially during
this forty day season in Lent, the film and the dust of sin is
removed and we can see with more clarity, as well as live into and
participate with God in transforming ourselves and the world.
May our prayer be: “Create a clean
heart in me and put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me, generous
God of love.” Amen.”
Rev. Judy May
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