We had new windows put in our house last week.  It’s one of those things that makes sense for the long-haul.  The view out of them is similar to what it was before, but there are no more drafts and less mold since the new ones won’t leak.  The energy savings will be very helpful, too, especially if the forecast of a “Shake, shiver, and shovel!” kind of winter comes to pass.  (See the Farmer’s Almanac prediction for Winter, 2022-23 here.)

I like having a lot of windows.  If I had my way, I think I’d live in a (mostly) glass house.  The more outside light and the more I can see of the views, the better!  However, to enjoy these benefits, I’ve got to pay the price – cleaning them!  I really appreciate the people who say, “I don’t do windows.”  For the perfectionists like me in our world, window cleaning is simply cruel torture!  I work like crazy to get them clean on one side, and discover that the smudges I’m trying to clean are on the other side.  So, I work on that side and find out that I’ve got more smudges I didn’t notice on the first side.  I find myself cleaning them over and over and never being satisfied.

With our old windows, I eventually realized that the reason I could never get them clean was because they were double-paned, and the smudges were on the inside, between the two panes!!  I’d have to break the glass to get them clean!

There’s something all too familiar about those inside smudges.  We perfectionists like to do the same thing with our lives as we do with our windows – work hard to eliminate all the smudges so things look nice and clean.  The problem with the smudges on the inside is that we simply can’t get them cleaned up, no matter how hard we try to clean the outside.

All of our lives are full of smudges.  Some are there from the beginning, some come along to hit us when we least expect it, and others are self-inflicted.  So, how do we clean them all up – both the inside and outside?  Well, it takes some broken glass.  Our old lives, or so Scripture tells us, are smudged beyond any chance of removal, no matter how hard we work at cleaning them up.  Others of us spend our lives trying to ignore the smudges, or explain them away.  The problem with that is that we can’t totally ignore them – they linger there in the back of our minds – and the explanations don’t ever solve the real problem of the smudges.  We know they’re there and we want them gone.

This reminds me so much of God’s grace.

Jesus offers us new windows, so to speak.  In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul puts it this way.  “…if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  (Read the passage here.)  It’s like tearing out the old window and putting in a new one – clean on the inside so that even when the outside gets smudged, there is a chance to clean it all up again!  The coolest thing is that Jesus offers to replace our smudged windows no matter how dirty they are, and no matter who we are.  It’s an open offer to you and me and anybody else who wants to accept it!  He’s already covered the cost.

When the new window is put in, we can see things more clearly, and the smudges are less of a problem, and more easily cleaned up.  Jesus is the master of window replacement and cleaning.

So, the next time I’m trying to clean my new windows, I’ll be rejoicing rather than muttering, because it will remind me of what God through Christ has done for me, making me a new creation, inside and out!  Maybe I’ll even hum some good music to myself, such as “Since Jesus Came into My Heart,” or “Heaven Came Down and Glory Filled My Soul.”  (See the lyrics, here and here.)

And maybe, just maybe, I won’t mind doing windows so much anymore.  😊