The approaching holidays—a mother's random thought—a newspaper clipping—communion Sabbath—and laundries. I was thinking about all these. With the holidays come resolutions, clean pages, new beginnings. The resolutions are often broken, the pages soon marred, and we have to begin again. How wonderfully patient is our Saviour, washing away our sins over and over again, until we learn to accept His victory into our lives, until His life becomes ours.
A mother scribbled these words on a piece of paper one Sabbath morning:
"I wonder if God is as happy to make us clean as a mother is to make her children clean—to wash and iron and tidy their clothes—to teach them to want to be clean daily, in body, clothes, mind and soul."
And the newspaper clipping:
"Sometimes I become positively lyrical as I hang the laundry outdoors. The strong sunlight and the breeze, the smell of the clean, wet clothes—these set me off, and I can't resist singing. Hymns usually. Not good, but loud and in tune. I can carry a tune as far as the next laundress. 'A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,' Fairest Lord Jesus,' Come Thou Almighty King'—triumphant words and triumphant music. Right to be sung in the morning when one is fresh and the day is full of promise.
"I suppose it is natural that a change for the better in one's personality should often be referred to in Biblical language as a 'washing.' To wash away one's sins; to come like lambs to the washing; Shepherd, wash them clean.
"Like the clothes that so many of us launder each week, I think as I take them from the line, we ourselves are being continually soiled and smudged. The contest against dirt, dullness and sin must be continuously won.
"In this life it seems we cannot do our laundry once and for all."—"Occupation Housewife," a feature by Dolly Reitz in the Cleveland News, June 20, 1955.
Laundry is not done once and for all. Nor is conversion. The servant of God tells us we need to be converted every day. Especially on communion Sabbath we come for a miniature baptism, a washing away of the accumulated dust of the road. And, like Peter, we cry out to be washed, not partially, but completely.
Laundries and heaven seem far, far apart. The thought of anything in heaven being contaminated, needing cleansing, seems to jar. But how familiar we are with the doctrine we call the cleansing of the sanctuary. And it is not only the sanctuary that must be cleansed. We ourselves have the privilege of coming to Him who ministers in the sanctuary to have our sins washed away and to rise from our knees with new hearts.
Let us imagine just what our reaction might be if it were announced that all the laundries in your community and mine are to close permanently on a certain date. Suppose that we must learn to keep our garments fresh, crisp, unsoiled—without laundering—after that date. A prosaic supposition that will never happen! But there is a heavenly parallel. For since 1844 God has been reminding us that closing time is near, that soon there will be no more forgiving, no more washing away of our sins. Repeatedly God has warned us of the day when the ministering Son of God will change His robes for those of a King. From that deadline hour man must live without sin, for never again can sin be forgiven.
We rejoice in the miracle of forgiving love, but are we learning the power of that love to keep us from sinning? We need to learn it, and learn it quickly.
"Those who receive the seal of the living God, and are protected in the time of trouble, must reflect the image of Jesus fully."—Early Writings, p. 71.
This month ends the year 1955. Some month soon will mark the end of all years—and "time shall be no more!" Yes, and some of the prosaic words in today's vocabulary and today's life will be no more. There will be no cleansing, no need of cleansing. For in that day—
"The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love."—The Great Controversy, p. 678. (Italics supplied.)
Are we ready, all of us, for the hour just ahead when God's clock strikes closing time?
