Paw Prints and Nose Smudges

Spurred on by preparations for a Super Bowl party and a beautiful sunny day, we were in a spring cleaning frenzy around the house on Saturday. Fortunately, my disdain for housework (obviously my mother scared me with a broom in my youth) is covered by having a husband who not only doesn't mind cleaning, he actually says he enjoys it. (There is no need to understand that to appreciate it.)

Since we are many years past having all our children move away from home, we can only blame the dirt, dust and hair balls on the floor on the basset hounds. And, they deserve the blame. Sam has paws the size of the palm of my hand. For some reason, he has never learned to wipe them before coming through the dog door. When it is raining, the dog door is always closed. Still, it is a two man project to catch the beasts as they run through the door and make sure that each paw actually lands on the towel set down to dry their feet. Even with two of us, we only have about a 75 percent success rate.

All that to say, the tile floor in the living room was in dire need of mopping. And, since Jerry is thorough in any job he does, he started the project by moving all of our living room furniture out to the deck. My project was to remove the winter's accumulation of muddy paw and wet nose prints off the glass in the french doors opening out to the deck.

One good thing about basset hounds is that they are only knee high. Their nose and paw prints are generally confined to the lower panes on the french doors. So, for the most part, the upper panes don't look all that dirty. I cleaned the outside first, spraying each pane individually and wiping it with a dry cloth to ensure that all the streaks were removed. Then I repeated the process on the inside, only to discover as I looked through the glass to the job I had done on the outside that the streaks left behind were more distracting that the original dirt had been. The battle was on as I would clean on the inside, go back to the outside, come back in and notice yet another streak and go back out.

It reminded me of the scripture James 4:8 that says "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." A couple of times each year - either out of pride or humility (sometimes it is tough to tell the difference) - I will write in my journal something along the line of "Dear Lord, show me those things in my life that are unpleasing to you." Generally, at the time it is written, I think I am repented up and in good standing with the Lord. Invariably, the entry in my journal a few days later is, "Thank you, Lord, for all those suggestions. Please let me work on those 2o or so suggestions before you share others."

My point is, when we are standing away from God, like my glass doors, we don't see the dirt. When we get really close to God (or the door) our vision becomes much better. And, generally, after an effort has been made to correct our faults, we find there are streaks left behind. As I stand back and look at my solutions, I have often found yet another wrong way to do the right thing. And so, the process continues.

On the bright side, my floor and doors were both clean at the same time at 3:45 Saturday afternoon. At 4:00 there were dog nose prints on the doors again. Where are the muddy paw prints and nose smudges in your life?

God can show them to you.