Cleaning from the Inside Out

Four grody, mud encrusted horse blankets hung over the fence. My job was to ungrody them. Jill gave me a hose and a horse brush.
"Just get them to the point that I won't be kicked out of the laundromat," she requested.

While Asherel has her riding lesson, peacefully rocking on the back of a warm, fuzzy animal with gentle brown eyes, meandering through a trail in the shadowy forest......I volunteer to do whatever disgusting jobs have accumulated. I love Jill and I love her vision for His Barn, a riding instruction farm that also gives benefits for Healing Horses Rescue, and looks at animals as gifts from God that we should cherish, nurture, and protect. So, I am happy to do what I can to help during that hour.

Horse blankets that covered horses all winter, that have been rolled in, sweated in, and rain spattered mudded on have a special scent all their own when dry. I cannot begin to describe the odor when wet. I thought I was getting off easy not being told to muck the stalls until the stream of water from the hose began to fully release the "eau de caballo" from within those blankets. And to scrub the blankets, I had to get my face right up to them so one hand could hold the flapping bottom taut while the other scrubbed.

"Well," I thought, "At least my arms are being toned for the sleeveless gown I will be wearing at Matt's wedding."
My sister Holly had warned me that old skin like mine is best seen covered. I can't wait til she is my age and I can repay all these loving comments she showers with regularity on her older sisters as though old skin is unique only to us. However, I do remember in my younger days watching older folks' flapping triceps jiggling like pancakes,  so I see her point.
"No pancake triceps for me," I muttered as grime and horse hair flowed away with the water. I had to keep switching hands to scrub because my jiggly triceps were actually getting pretty weary after just a few moments.

At first, I did just try to get off the chunks, but then something happened inside me. I was determined these blankets would look clean enough that perhaps the laundromat would not be necessary. My shirt and shorts and shoes were soaked with splotches of mud and horse detritus spattered all over me. My arms ached and I am pretty sure that passerbys were not calling Vogue to report a sighting of the next supermodel.  My old lady triceps jiggled and scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed. A horse fly bit me and left a huge welt, and still I scrubbed. Then I heard the voices of the returning riders. I turned off the hose, and stepped back to survey my handiwork.

"Wow," said Jill, "I was just hoping you would get off the chunks."
The four blankets, while not looking brand new, did look clean.
Asherel and her friend, Kathryn, who rides with her came over and the four of us gazed at the blankets, drying in the abnormally warm spring sun.
"Aren't they beautiful!" I exclaimed. The girls nodded, but didn't effuse the way one would expect over a minor miracle like this.

But I knew that this was a victory for me. I am a "just get the chunks off" kind of person. My sister Amy calls me a "surface cleaner".  My house is neat and organized....until you open a cabinet. We never do so unless we are swathed in full armor. Things leap out at us with astounding force. And I am sorry to say that this is probably a personality defect. It is hard to scrub beneath the surface. It is hard to look beyond what is obvious, and deal with what is hidden, til it is really clean.

I cringe every time I read Jesus' reprimand of the Pharisees.
"You clean the outside of the cup while the inside is filthy! You get off the chunks...but you leave the stains. After you clean the horse blankets, the laundromat consistently kicks you out."
He didn't mention the horse blankets, but the Bible is a living document that can fit any situation.
In actuality, Jesus was talking about souls. We look pretty on the outside....at least some of us do,( but no one over Holly's age according to her)......while our spirits are filled with corruption, deceit, and sin. Jesus doesn't mind us scrubbing off the chunks, but He advises we clean the inside parts thoroughly first. And He is willing to send His spirit along to help us. Since God is outside of time and space and age.... I suspect His triceps aren't jiggly.

Luke 11:38-40

³⁸ But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.
 ³⁹ Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰ You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?
⁴¹ But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.