For He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust (Psalms 103:14)
Saturday – usually it meant a half day at work, with time to catch up on things at home. But, as sometimes happens, here it was, late in the afternoon, and I was just now getting home. My mind was swirling with all the things I had failed to get done, that now would have to wait for some other day. Foremost among these was washing our dirty van.
My wife met me at the door & informed me that my nine year old son had washed the van for me. The weather was on the cool side with a brisk breeze, so it was not an altogether pleasant chore – one that made even his older brothers groan at the mention of it. Add to this the fact that he was rather small for his age and you can see it took some real motivation for him to accomplish the job. And voluntarily at that! “He wanted to surprise you,” my wife said with a smile. What father’s heart wouldn’t leap at the thought of a gift of service like that?
The next morning, I brought the van up to the back door in preparation for leaving for church. As the morning sun shone on the nice clean paint, I saw a streak of dirt as wide as my hand all along the side of the door, just under the window. My son had missed it. I don’t know if the soap suds had hidden it or what, but there it was. Now, our van is painted silver, and the dirt was brown, and besides, it wasn’t out of reach but right at eye level for the lad. No reason to miss it. At any rate, I would not have missed it if I had been washing the van!
“Well,” I thought, “no matter, a little glass cleaner would take it right off”. I went inside and got the cleaner and some paper towels to do just that. But just as I was approaching the van, a sudden thought leapt into my mind. “That streak is there because someone else washed the van so you would not have to. Someone who did it because they loved you!”
I stood and looked at that streak of dirt, and started to see it in a new and different light. Suddenly I couldn’t bring myself to wash it off. I just couldn’t. The longer I looked at it, the more beautiful it became! It was no longer just a streak of dirt, it was a token of my son’s love for me!
The longer I looked at it, the more beautiful it became, and I not only didn’t want to wash it off, I wanted to treasure it!
And then the verse in Luke 7:47 came into my mind, slightly paraphrased: “Wherefore I say unto thee, (his mistakes) which are many, are forgiven; for (he) loved much.”
That streak of dirt stayed there until the next time it got washed.
-Submitted by a 43-year-old father of five
