Last week I had to clean up a mess that got out of hand because of my own negligence. You may have noticed my cute little Dashounds picture. The red one is Marcy named after my Mother (btw it was my Mom's wish for me to name this special dog after her) and Scooter is our older girl. We have a small front yard where they go "potty" The winters in upstate NY can get very cold...but nonetheless most years I go out weekly and pick up the mess. This year...though I had lots of things on my mind that took precedence over this task. We've experienced some things that have been difficult. They'd "go" and then it would snow and cover the mess with a nice layer of white. Though I'd think about the need to clean up what I knew was underneath; the cover of snow helped me forget the truth. We'd have times where the snow would begin to melt and I'd see it...and lament about what a yucky job it was going to be now! Snow would come again and I'd rejoice. However, when the weather got even colder our older dog Scooter (the black one in the picture) started using the sidewalk because she didn't want to get her pads wet in the snow. So I had to clean that part up...it could only go so long and I'm sure the mail man would probably get upset. Now that I think about it....folks that know us probably thought ..."What is up with them...they don't usually let this pile up into such a mess?" I awoke from my stupor about a week ago and rolled up my sleeves and cleaned the smelly mess ---armed with plastic gloves and scooper. The grass will need to be re-seeded this spring as a result. We have a few weeks of winter left and it snowing even today ...I must still be diligent not to let a cover of snow make me forget what lies beneath. Later as I looked at the clean yard and sidewalk, I thought about how when there was a mess my sweet little dogs had to step in it and surely they had brought some of it inside on their paws. What I'd allowed to pile up outside had effects inside. Here is what God spoke to me about the mess.
He understands my hurts and desires to heal them....but neglect of everyday things create a big mess.
Natural things are a picture of spiritual things. We can sometimes loose focus or walk in circumstances so much that we allow our spiritual walk to become a mess with things that need to be cleaned.
Covering up a mess doesn't make it go away. Sometimes there are steps we must take...maintence even that we must attend to in both our natural and spiritual lives.
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