The Wallet Washing

I usually do my laundry on Friday evening or Saturday morning.  Well this past weekend I had dinner on Friday with some friends from church and played dominoes afterwards so I didn’t arrive home till late.  So I waited till Saturday morning to do my laundry.  I gathered all my dirty clothes like I’ve done hundreds of times and put them in the washing machine.   Like usual I put in my detergent, bleach and fabric softener and turned it on.  So as the washer did its thing I continued with my other chores.  Finally the washer turned off and I went to take the wet clothes out and transfer them to the dryer.  I lifted up the lid and started moving the clothes from the washer to the dryer when all of a sudden I saw something that not only surprised me but horrified me.  I saw it hidden underneath a wet shirt.  I just stood there for a few seconds wishing it were not true.  But it was.  I had washed my wallet.  Yep, I had forgotten to take it out of my pants the night before like I always do and now there it was in the washer with all its contents soaking wet.

I immediately took it out and worked frantically in removing all of the papers that were inside.  Why?  Because I knew that if all those papers dried it would be almost humanly impossible to separate them.  So I placed a towel on the kitchen counter and began gently separating the very limp and delicate papers.  It took a long time to do but finally I completed the tedious job.  However there were a few problems in that some of the papers were already really stuck to one another.  In these few cases I gently tore them apart leaving some of the text from the back of one to the front of another.  Finally the task was done.  Then I began to take inventory to see exactly what had been in my wallet for years.  To my surprise I found such things as:  a credit card that I had never activated yet, logins and passwords for accounts on the internet that I no longer use, notes to myself that I had no idea what they meant anymore, the brand and number of my printer cartridges that I use (I’m glad I found this one), way too many old insurance cards that should have been thrown away after getting the new ones, my Sam’s card which I had forgotten I even had (you can see I don’t go shopping there very often,) and oh yes, one very clean and somewhat wrinkled blank check.  So I decided that this was a perfect time to take inventory of my wallet’s contents and decide what I should keep and what I needed to throw away.  I had needed to do this before but had kept putting it off so this was the perfect time to do it now.

Later I thought about what had happened and this came to my mind.  Even though this was a tragedy that I had washed my wallet, it turned out to be a good thing since I was able to get rid of quite a few items that I actually didn’t need.  Then I thought about how sometimes tragedies in life turn out the same way.  Can’t you think of times when this has happened to you or to someone you know?  I believe that God sometimes allows bad things to happen to us so that we, in essence, can take inventory of our life and soul.  It’s during these crises that we immediately turn to God for His help.  Then He gives us time to sort things out and He leads us and guides us as to what we should keep and what we need to get rid of.  It’s also during these times that we can be closest to Him.  If we have strayed away from Him, these times will hopefully bring us back into fellowship with Him.  Isn’t it comforting to know that He is there with us during tragedies and bad times?  I can think back in my past to certain tragedies that have happened and now see how God was right there with me every step of the way.  Then finally, when all was said and done, I found myself closer to Him than I was before.

But what if you don’t know God personally and have never accepted His Son Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?  Well, first of all, He knows you and wants to have a personal relationship with you.  This is why He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for you.   The blood of Jesus is the only thing that can rid you of the sins in your heart and soul.  If you haven’t, won’t you ask Him to come into your heart today and live as your Lord and Savior?  He’s waiting for an invitation from you.  Once you do invite Him in, He begins to go through your life taking out all the ugly things, like I picked out the useless things from my wallet, leaving you with a clean heart free from all sin.   You will become a new creation in Christ leaving all the old things behind.  You can do it today, right here, right now.  He’s just waiting for that invitation.