[Got up this morning and felt impelled to do a little writing]

SS Thoughts #41: Washed and Made New

I believe the phrase “water off a duck’s back” is familiar to most persons. It alludes to the ability of birds to shake water from their feathers. It also reminds us to let the mean, discouraging things that people say, slide off us—like water off a duck’s back.

Facilitating my students’ constructive grasp of knowledge about pollution in general, and marine pollution in particular, made me reflect that it is not so easy to shake off dirt anymore! Sometimes as seabirds dive, it is impossible for them to get the oil or other garbage off their feathers when they resurface.

Oftentimes, the birds have to be rescued and washed—over and over again—in order to remove oil from their feathers and from their mouths. Otherwise they will die, e.g. from hypothermia, inability to fly, or swallowing the oil. But they are not washed with just anything. The best cleaner appears to be Dawn dishwashing liquid – the original brand!!

Thinking about seabirds and their oil predicament, reminds me of our own situation on earth. Living on this earth leaves us covered over with the ugliness of sin—and the only thing that can clean us up, and save us from death, is being washed in the blood of Jesus, 1 John 1:7. Jesus has offered to wash us..... He does it gently, but thoroughly—in His blood that was shed just once, on Calvary, for the remission of our sins. Thus we are fitted to live on a new earth that He will also recreate. 

Won’t you allow Him to wash you and clean you? 

Won’t you accept His offer of eternal life on that new earth?