“It’s Mama….”
Car Wash Clean….It’s a Bubbly Good Thing
Sweet Children, Madison, Kenton, and Johnson,
A favorite gift Ian has given me this year for my birthday has been a monthly “all you can use” pass to our local car wash. Who would have imagined that being able to drive up to the car wash, gain immediate entry to the wash line without having to stop would be such a gift. But it is…and it is an extravagant one.
Every time I enter the start to the wash, I am amazed that all I have to do is sit back and enjoy letting my car self-propel itself through a thorough cleansing.
Our car wash is fancy….as you go through it, it changes colors moving from blue to pink to green at times black, yellow, and then back to blue before your wash is complete and you are ready to go to the self-vacuum location where you can clean the inside of your car to your heart’s content.
And Ian didn’t just buy me the basic wash, he was generous and purchased the whole package including the tire shine which is an additional wash-blessing in and of itself!
Surprisingly, there is something personally cleansing about going through the car wash and I feel it every time….there is definitely a metaphor there of coming in dirty and going out clean which lights my soul and refreshes my thinking.
I think when Ian bought me the gift, he was thinking he would make my heart happy at the thought of having a freshly cleaned vehicle, but I don’t think he knew it would also provide refreshment to my spirit.
I think that is the season I am in life…where all the little things add up to really big things. Where bubbles and colored foam spark joy and bubble up sweetness and delight.
There is a pattern I experience each time I go to wash…at first, I am excited for the decision I make to “do it today” as I drive my little black “Gracie Jane” to the Soapy Joes near our Wal-Mart. I get a little antsy as I drive up to the pay window always a little nervous that my window sticker indicating I have a paid monthly membership to the clean and fresh wash club might not work. I pause to allow the “eyes” to beam me forward and make a firm left turn angling to get my wheels into the groove which enables me to be pulled onward. The guy or gal there arrows their hands forward indicating I am to pull up and I do. I imagine they go mindless completing the same transaction what has to be a million times each week, but to me, it is nice to be guided rather than lead, for a change….
And, then it starts…the slow move forward into the mindless respite of just me and my thoughts all wrapped in pastel lights. My mind pauses to think of the symbolism that this is what Christ does for us with our sins….same as the foam and water washes away the soiled dirty of my car, so does Jesus wipe clean the sin dirty of my life…over and over again
And I smile
That little girl smiles
That so appreciates this moment alone
Where gratitude pours forward as foam coats me and my car and draws me through to the next color….and the next level of cleanliness
And, right as I grow peaceful and in comfort of the slight sway in this foam filled wash, the arms of shami roller heads straight toward me…
I realize at that moment that if things did not go well, it could actually cause harm to both me and my vehicle…but it does not. At the very moment my heart starts to catch, the soft touch shami rolls up leaving just the material to complete the final wash and begin the drying process
So much like life when we come so close to ruin but then God lifts us up quickly and spritely out of the way so that when we are set back down, we are left to wonder at the protection we received
It is a wonder this thing of being cleaned
In a season where life is filled with COVID-19 virus and bitter heart, where emotions run dirty down people’s faces and fists are pulled up to defend, it is comforting to sit in neutral for a moment and pause in the comfort of knowing that where there is God, there is the ability to wash away the dirty, the pain, the bitterness, and selfishness and in its wake
Leave joyful clean
All wrapped up in rainbow bubble colors
Mama’s heart prays each of you enjoys the bigness of small gifts like this both the cleaning of the car and the cleansing of the hear.
ILYAOYMC,
Mama
