in her deep silence and beauty.
“I have had dreams of absolute delight,
Beyond all waking bliss-only of grass,
Flowers, wind, a peak, a limb of marble white;
They dwell with me like things half come to pass,
True prophecies-when I with thee am right,
If I pray, waking, for such a joy of sight,
Thou with the gold, wilt not refuse the brass.”
~George MacDonald, Diary of an Old Soul.
During Lent season, which ushered in the concerning Coronavirus pandemic we acutely face, I am currently experiencing a combination of both spiritual reflections and practical home projects. The photo above of seagulls over Lake Michigan was absolute delight for my soul, as I walked the beach early one morning. “A joy of sight…”, rings absolutely true from MacDonald’s poem. Further MacDonald writes about a limb of white marble; however, in our home project the past week we have attempted to clean several counters made of marble stone.
Literally hours and hours of attempting to clean our kitchen marble counter tops after engaging online suggestions for remedies, we had no perceivable progress to remove the many little water spots and food stains from fruit, vinaigrette or wine. To name a few: flour and water or baking soda and hydrogen proxcide wrapped in Saran Wrap overnight, or warm soapy water, or an expensive product, or water and a drop of ammonia. None of these concoctions worked, only cleaned the stains, failed to remove them! Did I mention the hours? Our last resort was the option to use 1% steel wool/1000 sandpaper lightly, finally after more hours the sanding removed most of the stains except a few tough ones. When the sun shines though our kitchen, the one or two stubborn stains hopefully are visible only to us. So, the white marble counters look 90% better, sanded and shining from the nourishing polish.
How stubborn stains and chronic sins of my heart are viewed in the sight of the Lord, but thanks be to God, the blood of Christ covers over me; over all my scarlet sins to be white as snow! No reflection of tough stains that remains, or too difficult to remove. By His mercy, deep and hidden sins will surface to be covered, even deeper removed is our guilt when we draw near to God and reason together with Him. How Isaiah’s prophetic words, “…though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow…” hit afresh to the heart. Oh, sufficient grace is offered to cover over our human condition as disabled patients, tainted in sin, and most often spiritually handicapped. As much grace as a soul needs to perfectly remove ALL the stains; for where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.
Praise the Lord our God, almighty and everlasting Father for His steadfast love to those who fear Him! The blood of Jesus is the best detergent in the world. Applied to our sins, mistakes, and failures, it removes the stains completely to place us free before God and others. May we surrender to His kindness and mercy, and be responsible stewards of such costly bought freedom.
We actually enjoy the home projects during our social distancing and the ongoing TV news updates. Simply to daily enjoy God’s creation in His generous and creative faithfulness, power, wisdom, holiness, and goodness is bliss. I can hardly take it all in. Although I feel personally invited into the Ancient of Days grandeur and majesty, try as I may, I cannot fully grasp it all now! Thankfully it leaves me yearning for more, craving for more grace and beauty, for another country where God, “as a plan for the fullness of time” will in His perfect love unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth. Eph.1
Be well and take care!
Mary