The Best Bath Ever (click to comment)

Can you name a few of the top inventions of all time? How about the wheel. The lightbulb. Penicillin. The printing press. And then there’s deodorant and shampoo. And the nose hair trimmer. Ah, personal hygiene is important, don’t you think? When I was a child, I didn’t see things this way. The quickest way to get me out of the bathtub was to turn on the water. And if Mom wanted to hide something from me, she’d put it under a bar of soap. Anything gross was examined, tasted and thrown. If something was clean, I made sure it didn’t stay that way long.

My daughter Rachael was a lot like me. She liked to examine things discovered outdoors, and taste them. If she wasn’t eating in the raspbewie patch, she was in the neighbours’ garden, sampling under-ripe produce with a scowl on her face. After going through onion tops and green tomatoes she’d move onto earth worms, spiders and mud, then show up at our front door with the remnants hanging from her chin, wanting a kiss. And yes, her mother gave her one. Our little girl changed her diet and grew up and boys dropped by the house noticing her. I told them about green tomatoes and earthworms, but that didn’t stop them.

When Rachael was 10 or 11, the neighbour boys set out a little wooden trap and a skunk crawled into it. Rachael has always been a kind-hearted soul, so she had compassion on the poor critter and brought it some lettuce leaves. She lived to regret that decision. We did too. I opened all the windows and doors. The place was rank. And Rachael was no better. PU! We buried her clothing in the garden. That didn’t help. We poured vinegar, tomato juice, and baking soda into the tub and told her to stay there for three weeks. “At least the boys will keep their distance,” I told my wife. But soon she was smelling great and the boys were back.

I don’t know about you, but I remember the day I realized I didn’t smell so good. It wasn’t that I’d been hit by a skunk, and I was doing okay externally, but spiritually I’d been rolling around in the mud. I needed some cleaning up. Deodorant didn’t help. Not even my mother could wash it away. Trying to get rid of it myself only made me more aware of my own guilt. I needed a new kind of bath. Hebrews 10 says that Jesus offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. By His death He opened a new and life-giving way to God. We can go right into His presence because our guilty consciences have been made clean, our bodies have been washed with pure water.

Through faith in Christ, you are cleansed, forgiven and pure in His sight. Because of what Jesus has done, when God takes a whiff of you, you come up smelling like roses.
I hope you can’t stop smiling about that today.