Spaghetti by Jeanne Heilman
Ever watch a young toddler eat spaghetti? Ever clean up a young toddler
after the spaghetti was eaten? Oh, what a mess! How does such an adorably
cute little kid manage to get spaghetti shampooed into his hair and tunneled
so deep into his belly button? But the best part is when that spaghetti
coated child lifts his arms high into the air, {as pasta dangles from his
armpits and falls to
the floor} and he squeals, “All done”, and demands to be loosened from his
high chair. Joy, now you break out the artillery of wash clothes, baby
wipes and trash bags while giving the dog permission to help! Notice how the
young lad’s temperament changes once he learns that he is not allowed to get
down just yet. Oh my, doesn’t he scream and holler? He doesn’t understand
that he must be cleaned up, maybe even bathed before he can waddle freely
through the house again.
Did you know that’s how God sees us after we’ve tried living life on our own? Instead of spaghetti, we find ourselves covered in hurt, rejection, loss, heartbreak, and even failure. We try so hard to make our own way in this world; and since God gave us a free will to make our own decisions, we are most often than not left with the sauce of this world covering us from head to toe. Just like you want to help your little toddler eat his spaghetti to prevent the probable mess that is sure to come, so does God want to help us. But He also knows that if He spoon feeds us we’ll never learn how to ask for His help when we need to be cleaned up.
Now, going back to that screaming, spaghetti covered toddler who is stuck in his high chair. He doesn’t know why you turned your back on him as he sits there crying ‘Ma Ma’ or ‘Pa Pa’. He doesn’t know that you’re getting a wash cloth or preparing for him a sink full of warm, soapy water. All he knows is that he wants down and you’re not answering him, so he screams louder and louder. But you know what you’re doing for him, so you calmly speak his name, reassuring him that once he’s cleaned up then he’ll be set free from his chair.
I don’t know many toddlers who are capable of washing all the sauce from their hair, armpits, belly button, or between their toes. Oh yeah, let’s not forget how much found its way into the diaper! You wouldn’t think of letting that toddler clean himself up, so please know that God doesn’t expect you to clean up by yourself after being covered by the world’s spaghetti sauce. Instead know and believe that God has prepared for all of us a bath! He sent us His own Son, Jesus; whose shed blood is the warm, soapy water needed to cleanse this world’s sauce away. He hears our cries in the middle of the night, He see our tears of a broken heart, pains of illnesses, stresses of lost jobs, fears of uncertainty. God hears us screaming for answers and needing solutions, yet He calmly speaks our name and asks us to trust His Son who shed His blood so that we would be washed from everything the world has dumped on us.
Like a child calms down when the warm, soapy washcloth is gently caressing his skin to remove the spaghetti sauce, so does our soul calm down when we feel the hand of God washing us and as His gentle voice says ‘be still and know that I Am God’. Jesus told His disciples at the Last Supper, “This is my Blood which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” His blood is our warm, soapy washcloth, cleansing us from the world’s pains and sins.
