Getting bathed

I generally pride myself on having fairly clean children.
But with boys, fairly is the operative word.
As Connor was snuggling with me on the couch
the other afternoon reading a book,
that sweet baby-freshness
just. wasn't. there.
Baby-foulness was more like it.
When was the last time Connor got a bath?

Living with smells...
it makes me ponder my own...

Lazarus had been dead 4 days.
In a swelterly climate
human remains don't last long.
Even in a dark cave,
the stench would be fierce.

Take away the stone,
Jesus calls.

NO--the stench.
The stench of my doubts,
fears,
insecurities,
permeates thick.

You haven't even given your child a bath yet?
What kind of mother are you?

But more than that...
darker and deeper grows the tomb.
Is that all that defines you?

The darkness hides.
And lies.
Though small and confined,
I know the limits.
Although limiting...

But living in the stench,
is not really living.
It is death disguised.

The Easter season is about awakening to who we really are,

to who God has called us to be,

for the sake of the world.

I'm not talking vocational terms,

but formational terms.

How am I being called to resurrect love,

light,

patience,

peace,

gratitude,

forgiveness...

in my life?

So that the world might know the One from whom these things come.

Forget about the stench, I hear.

Believe.

Believe that I am capable of doing far more than this.

Far more than you can ever hope of...or imagine.

Again he calls out--

Roll the stone away!

Just as Golgotha could not contain him,

so too,

he invites me to rise to new life.

COME OUT!

Go and take a bath.