Once I counted eleven different buildings on our farm. The largest was called "the Big Barn." It was so big we actually had a half-court basketball floor upstairs. Brothers and neighbors played up there for countless hours, especially in the winter time. The rim is still hanging up there.
After playing for hours, we could come outside and find that there was black all around our nostrils and mouths. Sometimes in our eyes! What was it? Dirt and dust that we were breathing in.
We were unaware of how filthy the air was. It was due to the dust from the hay bales surrounding us. We thought the air was clean!
At the top of the barn was a window, an upper light.. Once or twice a year (we lived in Western New York!), the sun would come out. When the sun shone throught that upper light, it exposed the dust we never saw. That dust was so thick you could almost cut it. In fact, the grids in the window cut the dust into squares on its way to the floor.
Sometimes we may think we're clean. Then the light of God's Son Jesus Christ and the light of His Word shines through on us, and shows us how filthy we are. The prophet Isaiah put it this way: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;..."(Isaiah 64:6).
That's humbling, isn't it? Thank God for the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). Now, because of Him, we are "clean every whit" (John 13:10).
From the upper light of God's presence we are not clean. Let’s accept that humbly and trust in Christ for salvation and cleansing.
