Speaking of appliances, our dryer started making Strange and Scary Noises last week, like a herd of buffalo in the early stages of a stampede. Naturally this seemed like a good time to call Dryer Fixer Guy. He couldn’t make it out here till today.
In true form, this morning I (frantically) stashed the odds and ends that have collected on top of the dryer over the, uh, years and washed down all visible surfaces. No, I do not recommend this style of housecleaning, but hey, it was nice to discover that our dryer is white underneath it all.
Odds and ends, and then some... 
At the time, the dryer seemed a convenient place
for Christmas candles as well...
Not trying to brag or anything, but when I was done, the dryer...gleamed. And lucky for me, I got it gleaming *before* Dryer Fixer Guy arrived. Whew! Too bad he was subjected to glimpses of the rest of Scary Basement, but that’s a different post altogether.
So Dryer Fixer Guy quickly figured out the problem (and no, buffalo weren’t involved after all), but here’s the best part: as he was doing his initial diagnosis, he commented on how clean the dryer was. Yes, you read correctly, CLEAN.
Not just cosmetically clean (though one might insert the word “gleaming” and understand the full extent of his compliment). He also meant clean in all the traps and moving doohickies and other technical mumble jumble. You got it, clean.
I, of course, along with you, clever reader, know that just a few paces away rested evidence of how Not Clean the dryer was just a few minutes earlier. And chances are, the knick knacks and dust bunnies might very well rebel against their stashed-status and inform their relatives that the top of the dryer is typically a safe place to which to migrate. Check with me in a few weeks, and I’ll let you know the repopulation status.
Ahhhh, how lovely to behold. For now.
Makes me think of how easy it is for us to stash our personal dirt and make Pretend Clean to the rest of the world. If we don’t change the underlying habits that led to the junk in the first place, we’ll find ourselves frantically stashing the appearance of our heart far more often than we’d care to admit.
How grateful I am that God’s clean, however, is different. No last-minute hiding of junk that’s sure to re-emerge. No superficial spray-down. Only deep clean...clean that will last...is good enough. He cares too much about our well-being for anything less.
they shall be as white as snow."
(Isaiah 1.18)
Off to take a load out of the dryer,
Lisa