Spring Cleaning

My hands immersed in suds, I stand at the kitchen sink and gaze at the aura of green tinging the trees against blue sky outside my window. Buds are beginning to open. A hint of spring awakens. Bloom is coming to the brown earth.

As I savor the beauty, I become aware that my windows are dirty. Really dirty. Winter film and water spots cloud spring’s beauty. The more I look, the more my view grows unclear, and suddenly instead of the freshness of new life, I can’t see past the dingy, spotty glass I’m focused on.

How like our spiritual sight.

“Philip said to [Jesus], “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us” (John 14:8 ESV).

Jesus’s discourse with his disciples is filled with tender teaching. He washes the feet of his disciples in John 13, and then predicts his departure. He forewarns them of their denial of him but leaves them comforted at the start of chapter 14 with, “Let not your heart be troubled.” He follows with the assurance of a place prepared for them (vv. 2–3).

Then Jesus says those familiar words, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (v. 6), using language that reflects back to God’s declaration of the Great I AM and Moses at the burning bush.

Philip’s poignant request to show them the Father and that “it is enough for us,” echoes our hearts’ desire. We want Christ to be visible. Just a glimpse. So we can breathe, function, make it through.

[Tweet “We want Christ to be visible. Just a glimpse.”]

Somehow Philip hadn’t seen clearly what was right before him. And Jesus’s loving rebuke reveals Philip’s marred vision: “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?…How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’” (v. 9).

 Nothing in Scripture indicates Philip was out of line, disobedient, or living in sin. He’d been called directly by the Master himself. He’d followed eagerly, wanting to see the culmination of the Messiah’s coming. Yet as his disciple, one who lived with Jesus day in and day out, he was visually impaired.

I’m not sure if Philip missed the entire point, or if he was simply looking for something bigger, decisive, a confirmation visible to all the world. Maybe he still expected a political grab or perhaps a supernatural event. Whatever he anticipated, he didn’t see past the human flesh of Christ to the incarnate God.

Sometimes my spiritual sight is diminished like Philip’s. I lose sight of the big picture, of its vastness, of the who of my faith and focus on what’s, why’s, and how’s. I can’t see past the problems in front of me. At times I allow sin to mar the picture, and life appears dingy.

But Jesus didn’t leave Philip shortsighted. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father…Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (vv. 9–10).

We have no better way to clear foggy sight than to exalt Jesus to the position rightly his. In the process of aligning myself with who God is, I regain my focus. I become aware of sin, skewed priorities, and insignificant distractions that have overtaken what should be a clear pathway to richness in my relationship with Christ.

He forgives. He restores focus. He brings clarity.

David, in a time of repentance from his sin with Bathsheba, prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm  51:10 NASB).

Clean hearts restore clear vision. How’s the view from your window? Is your soul dingy? Today just might be a good day for some spring cleaning.

Sylvia Schroeder and her husband care for missionaries world-wide with Avant Ministries. Captivated by God’s Word she writes with the perspective of someone who lived and raised four children overseas. Twelve grandchildren in her heart often wiggle onto her pages. She blogs at When the House is Quiet.

Photograph © Diana Simumpande, used with permission

Save