Bring Your Dirt

It's happened to me before.

I'm stomping around in the dirty, filthy mud somewhere and take half of it with me on the bottom of my shoes.

I might be mindful about it at first, being careful to make sure I take them off when I get inside. But, then in my haste, the next day I put them on and walk out the door, forgetting completely about the now dried and caked-on mud on the bottom of my shoes.

What's terrible is that now I'm taking that dirt and leaving it everywhere I go! I visit a neighbor and dirty her front carpet. I go to the bank and leave a trail from the front door to the teller. I get in my friend's car and leave nothing but big clumps of mud. What a mess. And, what a burden for others to clean up.

But, there is one place we can bring our Dirt- yes, even encouraged to! Our Father's house.

Colin did.

He came into the Sunday school classroom, his boots caked with 3 inches of dried mud. He probably didn't even know just how dirty his shoes were. No one did - until halfway through the class. I looked down and his chair looked like it was sitting in a dirt pile.

"Wow, Colin," I said. "Where did all this dirt come from?"

At first, he didn't know himself. We both investigated. Of course, all signs lead back to his dirty boots. Without a thought, I reached for the dustpan and broom. It didn't bother me at all to clean up the mess. And, it didn't take long to do so either. For the next 45 minutes, I continued to teach and Colin's boots continued to de-mud. By the end of class, I looked down and a new dirt pile was under Colin's chair.

***

Colin brought his dirt to God's house. Dirt he didn't even know he was walking around with. Dirt that others might see as a hassle to clean up anywhere else.

But, Colin reminded me of something today. God is in the Boot Cleaning Business. So, we never have to worry about the mess. We can just come as we are.

By the way, Colin left the classroom with clean boots today. He left his dirt at God's house.