A friend asked me the other day if I had an automatic dish washer. I smiled and said, "Nope! sometimes I forget to do them at all." The truth is I have washed a lot of dishes in my life. I have faced dried on, caked on, and burnt on food that my dogs wouldn’t even touch. I have scrubbed out pots and pans that needed a barrel’s worth of elbow grease to get clean. I have done dishes when the water pipes were froze and I had to carry in water from outside and heat it on the stove. I have even worked in a restaurant where I had to wash a year’s worth of dishes every single day. A full sink and an empty dish rack don’t scare me then. In fact, I find it peaceful slowly scrubbing away the crust and grime from my dishes, cups, pots, and pans. I sometimes even sing to myself while I wash them. It feels good looking at them when I am done and seeing them sparkling, clean, and ready to use.

I only wish that getting the crust and grime off our hearts, souls, and minds was as easy. This world is always working to dry on its anger, cake on its prejudice, and burn on its hatred. Every day it does its worst to fill our insides with its muck. After a while it is hard not to feel like a 10 foot tall stack of dirty dishes. Thankfully, though, we can all call in the best dishwasher in the universe: God. No matter how much filth this world throws at us when He washes us in His love and rinses us in His forgiveness we too come out sparkling, clean, and ready to use. He is always ready to step up to the sink too. We just have to let Him.

The next time you are washing your own dishes then allow God’s love, peace, and forgiveness wash over you too. The next time you are drying your pots and pans allow God to dry your tears as well. You don’t have to go through life feeling like a dirty dish, not when God’s love and joy can make you sparkle and shine.