The Divine Dishwasher
“Dishwasher” noun -ˈdish ˌwȯ-shər, -ˌwä-: one of the most insidious deceptions ever perpetrated against humankind!
There is only one dishwasher in our home, and it is not the stainless steel machine that howls and rumbles like a Texas twister well into the wee hours of the morning; No! it is instead the fellow haplessly put in charge of this pesky household chore—the one given authority over this featherweight piece of . . . well, “stainless” steel! (You know, the stuff you have to buy a special spray to get the stains off of. That thing.)
The term “Dishwasher” has got to be the ultimate misnomer! Dish-sanitizer, perhaps. But a dishWASHER it is not. But then again, one even has to wonder just how sanitary a glob of food that has been petrified by superheated air really is!
I’m thinking of starting a class action suit for false advertising! Fair trade practice should require all dishwashers to bear a caveat. You know, kind of like “Caution: Cigarette smoking can be hazardous to your health.” I envision something like the following:
Before inserting dish in this dishwasher, thoroughly scrub and wash away all traces of food from the dish using the simple tools available over the counter at your local grocery or hardware store (which is being interpreted, “use the age-old standbys—your soft dishrag, your pot-scrubber, your dish brush, your steel wool, and, for the more stubborn residue, your highly acclaimed “ball peen hammer and chisel” combo!).
Yes, modern dishwashers are quite the time-saver (dripping sarcasm). Whatever did people do in the ages before the invention of the ill-named “dishwasher”??
Lest readers process the foregoing discussion merely as the impious lamentation of a man who reckons the time remaining for his earthly sojourn by postulating the remaining and finite number of his foreordained dishwashings, I must hasten to add that this writer, as a theologian and clergyman, tends to harvest all of human existence for sermon illustrations, and the present case is no exception to that rule.
To be blunt, if we see our sin-plagued selves as “dirty dishes” and our heavenly Father as the “Divine Dishwasher,” we will do well to consider how difficult we sometimes make God’s sanctifying task. God chooses a variety of tools to mold us and shape us into the image of His Son, to wash our dish, if you will. Some ungodly aspects of our fallen nature capitulate with negligible resistance. Here, it seems, only a soft dishrag is required, and God easily wipes our dish clean of its sinful stain.
Other aspects of our inhumanity, however, are much more obstinate. Like chunks of food that have air-dried for several days, these aspects have become so firmly fused into the plate itself that they are virtually indistinguishable from it. For these, only a full-scale amputation that truly “rocks our world” will bring us to our spiritual senses.
This should teach us to deal quickly with the small issues of our lives when it is much easier to repent, change direction, and move forward. Otherwise, these easily entangling sins will become caked on, and their removal will be more costly and painful!
Now the garbage-laden dishes on our kitchen counters and sinks are utterly content to sit there and become ONE with the Kitchen—as if they truly belonged there! We wash these dishes only because their presence in that location and state is undesirable to us. Similarly, some garbage-laden people are utterly unconcerned about becoming holy; in fact, they actually enjoy their state, and hardly even notice their filth. But, unlike those who wash every dish whether it wants to be washed or not, God washes ONLY those “dishes” who ASK Him. The apostle John reminded us that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to CLEANSE us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Have you asked Him to do that for you TODAY? If you worry that you’ve gone to far, that worry is itself a sign that you haven’t. God’s Spirit is still wooing you. Remember, in this “spiritual dishwashing business” God will never ” throw in the towel.”
Well, If you’ll excuse me . . . I’ve got some dishes to do!
