It’s amazing how quickly the house can get messy. Sometimes, I have it clean, but then I blink, and when I look again, the kids’ toys are scattered out all over the place. So I decided a long time ago to make the kids responsible for cleaning up their own messes. Each child has to clean up his or her own stuff throughout the house, as well as help Mommy when necessary.
One day, when I saw that the floor in Kenny’s room was covered with his favorite toys, I told him to go clean his room. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, and went in to start cleaning. That’s nothing new. He is almost always quick to obey when I ask him to clean. But this time, his response turned out to have been even more extraordinary than consistent obedience.
A couple minutes later, I went to check on him and found him cleaning up his toys. He had obviously been working since I told him to begin, but there was still a lot left to do. “Kenny, who was in here playing with you?” I asked, intending to have that child help him.
Kenny paused a second, considering the question. “Nobody was playing with me, because I wasn’t playing,” he said. Then he added willingly, “But I’ll clean it up.”
Wow. What an awesome attitude. Even though he had had no part in the mess, he willingly went to clean up when I told him to. He could have protested that he hadn’t been the one to make the mess and therefore shouldn’t have to clean it up, but he didn’t. He simply went and did as he was told, and with a good attitude.
I guess I need to take a lesson from my son. Sometimes, when I’m told to do something, I protest. I’m not the one who did the wrong thing. Why should I have to be the one to deal with the mess that other person left behind?
But Jesus would have far more of a legitimate complaint than you or I would. After all, we’re the ones who messed up our lives by sinning. Yet He came to earth, lived, and then died on a cross for us so He could help us clean up our mess. He wasn’t the One Who made the mess; in fact, He never sinned in even the smallest degree. Yet the perfect righteousness of His perfect life now stands in place of our filthy rags, so that when God looks at us, He doesn’t see a mess. Instead, He sees us as spotlessly clean.
Most of us try to teach our kids that everyone in a family needs to pitch in a little extra to make the family run smoothly. But Jesus pitched in more than a little extra. He gave everything.
So the next time He asks us to help someone clean up his or her mess—whether that means forgiving an offense, providing instruction, or showing compassion—let’s do it with the right attitude. It’s not my mess, but I’ll gladly help clean it up. After all, You cleaned up everything for me.
Psalm 51:7—Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.