Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
And repeat and repeat….and…. well, you get the idea.
The average American family washes two loads of laundry per day, or up 10 loads of laundry per week! Can you relate? And if each load takes a little over an hour to do, we are spending 40-50 hours per month on this household chore! Think about it:
Warm cycle.
Cold cycle.
Delicate cycle.
Darks.
Lights.
No bleach.
Heavy Duty.
Front Loader.
Top Loader.
Spin cycle.
Extra rinse.
Dry Clean.
Laundry is a never-ending cycle of taking out to reload, to fold, to take out and reload. And have you ever deciphered the secret codes of the Laundry Club? There are close to 100 of those! Each symbol holds a different rule and therefore a different set of instructions on how to manage your clothing.
But stop the cycle; laundry can be spiritual!
“But who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers soap.”
Malachi 3:2
This verse has in some way given me comfort that the Lord understands my woes of laundry! However, the washing will be of me. The type of soap referred to here is a cleansing lye able to produce brilliant white in fabrics. What if Jesus decided to return while I was begrudgingly separating loads or folding socks? No matter where we will be when He returns, there will be a washing and a refining of His people.
Consider the beauty of His salvation for you. It was His blood that made you clean. If you have spent any time at all in a laundry room, you know that blood is very hard to remove from fabric. But isn’t it just like the Lord to defy our natural thinking and move beyond to the supernatural to prove to us that His perfect blood has removed our stain of sin? That His precious blood has purged us white? How can it be possible that His powerful blood makes us white as snow?
“Come now, let’s settle this,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.” Isaiah 1:18 NLT
“We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.” Isaiah 64:6
He takes us, plunges us deep into His grace, rinses out the filth, and steams us clean. But, then He takes it one step further. He doesn’t give us back those old clothes. He dresses us in something wonderfully new.
“I will rejoice greatly in the Lord,
My soul will exalt in my God;
For He has clothed me with garments of salvation,
He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” Isaiah 61:10
Even Jesus appreciated clean clothes! Read what Mark notes about Jesus at His Transfiguration:
“He was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them” (Mark 9:2-3).ESV
So how clean is your spiritual laundry?
Is it Wash Day? Go to the Master and let Him purge, scrub, and spot treat. What happens if you stain your spiritual clothes? Do you feel like you are in a constant state of “wash, rinse, and repeat?” We all have been there from time to time. But be holy because He is holy. Seek Him first and keep Him first. Don’t dirty up the laundry with haphazard living. He scrubbed you clean so you would stay clean. He is kind not to air your dirty laundry or even line dry your undergarments! Proudly wear the scent of His launderer’s soap.
So maybe while you are reading this, you are folding load #2 from today. As you fulfill your weekly national average of the laundry dread, remind your heart of the washing His blood made upon your life. Remind your soul of the freshness of His laundry soap in your life. Thank Him for your new clothes; those royal robes and keep your garments and heart clean.
