Christmas in July or Snow

Last winter I was sitting on my couch at home and watching the snow lazily drift down from the gray clouds above. This is one of my four favorite times of year; winter. There is a certain cleanness that comes from the white snow. A sense that the dirty world has been disinfected.

I know snow is a odd thing to write about in July, it’s just that I find it funny how we have equated snow with cleanliness – “Pure as the driven snow.” “Made white as snow,” and let’s not forget Disney’s vision of purity “Snow White.” The ability to make things white again is the chief selling point of most of our laundry detergents, of which we will pay more for the one that get’s our whites whiter.

The thing about snow is that it doesn’t really clean things at all – it just covers up the garbage, dirt, dust and general scrubbiness that is early winter. Just give it a few months or a couple of warm weeks and poof- the illusion melts. Take a look under the bushes and you will see what I mean.

It struck me that our attempt at being righteous people is something of the same sort of covering. We have created a culture in our American churches that call us to godly living- living like Jesus – WWJD? Right? And, living a Holy life is all well and good, but the holy living never can, and never will clean us up on the inside. The Apostle Paul once called this sort of righteousness “Filthy Rags” – an image that was intended to bring to mind used toilet paper. We use this holy living to clean ourselves – but it can never give us the cleansing we really need.

If God’s Spirit is not in us to clean us – from the inside out – then all this holy living is just a bunch of snow covering up the real picture underneath.

Are you letting God do the cleaning in your life? Or are you trying to do it on your own?