An Affair to Remember

They say that confession is good for the soul, so here goes.  I had an affair.  There I said it.  My affair?  With laundry. With my wife out of town I found myself staring down the stinky end of a clothes hamper for the entire weekend.

Confession #2:  On weekends I have been known to re-wear my apparel.   If it has weathered the previous week with only a smudge of peanut butter and a couple splashes of coffee, there's a pretty good chance I'll don it on Saturday.  I do however draw the line at clothing I happen to be wearing around sick people. 

I, like most men,  think my dirty clothes are capable of movement.  Regardless of where the hamper is placed, my dirty items are always found on top of it, in front of it, or hanging from a doorknob.  My Mom once said something like, "Your socks are so filthy, they could walk to the machine by themselves.", and I believed her.  Why not?  The next time I looked they were gone and had reappeared magically clean and Downy Fresh in my drawer.  When I got married over 30 years ago I found out very quickly that  David Copperfield does not walk in the house while I am at work and wave some magic wand that obliterates skid-marks and ring around the collar.  There is nothing magical about having grab a pair of balled up underwear and throw them in to the laundry.  I would rather stick my hand in a septic tank.

 

During my recent affair I discovered something. Chinese engineers have developed a cloth that cleans itself. This could have a revolutionary impact on the detergent or laundry industry. Soon, our everyday, ordinary clothes will have the capacity to clean themselves. (www.extremetech.com/extreme/109215-chinese-invent-self-cleaning-cotton-clothes).

How is this possible? According to one study, dunking cotton into a vat of specially-crafted nanoparticles creates a material that self-cleans when exposed to sunlight. In one test, Chinese engineers dyed materials for 30 minutes in an orange dye. They then hung the clothes beneath simulated sunlight. The dye's hold over the fabric broke, and, after a time, easily washed off with water.

Can you imagine?  (I suppose this could go well with the marketing philosophy of AX products).  College students will no longer need to peel off their clothes after a long night of ... studying. They now can awaken, splash a little water on their faces, and stroll to class, ready and prepared for the day. Or, no need to stuff a carry-on bag with extra T-shirts or blouses. I can take a couple changes of clothes for my vacation trip and call it good. 

 

Self-cleaning clothes, however, aren't an excuse for laziness. Something is still required if I really desire cleanliness. I can't rip off my clothes and lump them into a pile, only to don them afresh come dawn. I still need to, at the very least, both hang them and rinse them, which is, strangely, similar to God's demands.  In other words, to be restored -- to be washed clean -- some work is necessary.

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Isaiah 1:18 says: "Come now, let us reason it out, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." The stains of sin that sully the fabric of righteousness can be removed, so that my garments look as pure as the driven snow, and as soft and pleasant as wool.

I often think: "Well, that's true of them, but not of me, not a Christian." Except that God isn't talking through Isaiah to the unbelievers. God is confronting his own people. This was an in-house conversation. This is a message for the people of God, for the church, for believers, for Christians, for me.  Isaiah is talking to those who already follow the one, true God.

You want self-cleaning clothes? Well, it doesn't quite work that way. Do the dirty work. Take them off, plunge them in water, and hang them to dry in the Son's pure rays. If – a contingent if – you do that, then God will wash them clean.

Self-cleaning clothes, in the end, are a great idea, but a bit misleading. They still require something of me, namely, a removal, a plunging, and a hanging. All of which are necessary before my clothes can be cleaned, made new, restored. For me, and to bring the analogy home, reconciliation – washing my sins clean -- requires the embodiment of God's justice in and throughout my life, family, and community. Now that is an affair to remember.

If you have time - a favorite episode of Leave It to Beaver

Click Here for Leave It To Beaver Episode: Beaver's Laundry