Dirty Clothes

When we lived in Burkina Faso most people in the country did not have any way to wash their clothes except by hand. The clothes washing duties fell to women and children. It was not unusual to see a group of women gathered around a “watering hole” doing their washing. A watering hole would usually be a hole dug out in the sand in a dry river bed where water would seep into the hole, and the women would dip water out of the hole with a calabash (gourd) bowl.

It would be 100 degrees plus with a humidity of about 10-15% most of the time, so drying was easy. but here’s the twist: when the women would finish washing a piece of clothing, they would stretch it out on the sand. Yes, on the sand! When the clothes would dry (usually in a matter of minutes) interestingly enough they would shake the clothes briskly and there would be no sand on the clothing!

We had the only washing machine within two hours of our home, so we were very fortunate indeed. We thought we were doing a good job getting our clothes clean until we returned to the USA.

When we returned to the US after resigning from our service in West Africa, we brought very few things back to the states with us. We picked out our very best clothes and packed them in our luggage.

The first day after arriving at my parents’ home, my mother told us to pile all our clothes near the washing machine—not just our dirty clothes but all of our clothes.

After washing a load she hung them out on the clothesline (oh, by the way that is a wire stretched between two posts and the purpose is to dry your newly washed clothes in the fresh air and sunshine). After hanging out a couple of loads she came inside and informed us that we needed to buy all new clothes.

We thought how ridiculous that was until Mom marched Cheryl and me outside to the clothesline to look at our white clothes compared to their white clothes. Our whites were all a tan color. Without any more discussion we agreed with my mother and made plans to buy new clothes.

My mother has always been a Nazi about cleaning. The old adage “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” rings true with my mother. She will have many jewels in her heavenly crown if they are based on cleanliness.

As I write this story Cheryl and I are at my mother’s home. She fell for the fifth time in the last couple of months and miraculously she has not broken a bone. However, this last fall bruised her severely and it has incapacitated her to the point that she walks with a walker with wheels. But that has not stopped her from trying to clean her house, or more accurately telling Cheryl and me what she “needs to do.” Like this: ”I need to vacuum the den.” “I need to sweep and mop the bathrooms.” We jump in to do these chores, of course, and we try to preempt some things before she mentions them.

Even though no one will come in her home all day long, she still gets out the Clorox wipes to clean door handles, door frames, counter tops and on and on.

Oh, I did not mention that my mother has macular degeneration and is legally blind. She takes her shoes off to walk across her kitchen floor and can detect a few grains of sand on her floor. She just knows how to sense dirt.

Wouldn’t it be great if we, as believers, had the ability to sense dirt in our lives that may not be so obvious to us or those living close to us? What if we had a sixth sense for detecting sin before it happened so that we would not actually commit that sin?

We don’t have a sixth sense ability. We do continue to sin even though we desire not to commit sins. But God has given us the ability to stop ourselves from committing a sin. We are often tempted to do something that misses the mark that God has set for us.

Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. James 1:13-14

By the way, I miss the fresh smell of clothes that have been dried on the clothesline!