Parking my car in
the mostly-full parking lot, I noticed it parked two spaces down. I’m not entirely sure what caught my eye about the black blazer, except maybe its dirty exterior. But truth be told, most every car in the parking lot that day, including my own, was equally dirty. There’s just something about sloppy, snowy roads that makes keeping a vehicle clean about impossible.
As I rushed back out of the store, eager to complete my errands and get home, my eyes once again landed on the black blazer. And then I noticed it, amid the dirt and grime. “I love you mommy” was scrawled in letters across the entire back windshield of the blazer in childlike script. The sentiment caused me to pause, smile and reflect.
As I drove away, I was reminded of the time Jesus wrote in the sand when the adulteress was brought before Him. All who stood in judgment of her were reminded of their own sin, and as Jesus challenged the others, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her,” they left.
While we might not find ourselves caught in the sin of adultery, we each have dirt and grime in our own lives. Mistakes, habits, addictions, unkind spoken words, inappropriate thoughts, selfishness….if we are honest, the list could be endless. Sometimes we’re temporarily successful in scrubbing clean the exterior; truthfully though, keeping our lives completely free of grime isn’t much easier than keeping a car clean during the winter months in Montana.
But just as the mom’s dirty car was used by the young child to express his love for her, so too can our lives be. The places of struggle and sin, regret and wrongdoing, fallenness and folly become canvases for the finger of the Lord to write His love, grace and forgiveness. As he does so, His finger pushes aside the dirt and grime, allowing not only His light to shine in on us, but also shine out for others to see.
May you be encouraged and not ashamed today. Allow the God who loves you to write upon your windshield, pushing aside the dirt and grime. Rejoice in the light – His light – that shines in. And boldly allow others to see His message written across your life.
