Laundromat

Open My Eyes, That I May See

Open my eyes, that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me;

place in my hands the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set me free.

Silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see.

Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!

--Clara H. Scott, 1841-1897

The father of our country, still our greatest president, while speaking to our first defenders of freedom, said, “The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army.”

In my lifetime of 83 years, I have seen total change in the meaning of some words. It is time for us to reestablish the definition of words such as honor, honesty, integrity, and concern.

This writer, born in the poverty of an Eastern North Carolina tobacco farm on a dirt road, with no phone, power or water lines. I graduated from a small country school with 13 in my graduating class. Before the foundation of the world, I was chosen and blessed by the creator of the universe to migrate out of poverty-- with its disappointments, discouragements and despair--, to have the courage of faith in a God who works miracles, and to travel every continent of the earth. When one has seen the depravity and decadence fostered and festered by false religions and political tyrants, they come to a good understanding of the sovereignty of God. There were the same beliefs on evolution in the 400 years between Joshua and King Saul as there are now-- fish coming on to land and walking. The difference now, is that the Christian cannot believe in evolution. Man still has his doubts and fears. He cannot understand why God allows suffering from wars, disability, and poverty. God, Himself, is longsuffering. He wants all to be saved, everyone to come to the knowledge of truth. It is His business; “He is boss.”

Most poverty of the world lies in nations below the 30^th parallel, and most of these people are each limited to less than one gallon of water a day. Every time I take a shower, brush my teeth, wash laundry, I think of the generations of my own ancestors who never knew what it was to have a good bath. I so remember parching days on the farm, putting my mouth to the mouth of the hand water pump and drinking the gushing, cool, refreshing water. Several billion human beings in the world have never had this pleasure. In Africa, and Asia-- the image remains in my mind-- women trudge homeward with large jugs of water which they had gathered from a creek, well, or any place they could find water. Their entire lives were built around water, just enough for cooking and for each person to have a drink, but not enough for bathing, cleaning or washing. And we wonder why they have so much disease; they live in filth. These are just the human beings. Think of the animals with such great thirst. I can still see our beautiful milk cow trotting across the pasture to the water trough when I would pump out good, clean water for her-- the work animals (mules and horses) enjoying cool water after a long day of work.

In Africa, I saw hundreds of people washing their clothes in rivers-- beating their clothing on rocks. In India, the dhobi wallah workers take your laundry from your home, wash it, hang it on lines to dry, and return it to you. There, you can see entire fields of clothes drying in the sun.

In other articles I have written about working my way through 8 years of university, professional education, selling Bibles door-to-door, during the summer. I still remember, on Saturday mornings in the poor areas of each town, wealthier white matrons with cars bringing baskets of their own laundry to be washed, dried, and ironed by poor women. This was before the time of the electric washing machine and dryer. As with most household chores, everything is so much easier because of money and the technology it buys. Even the poorest homes now have laundry facilities.

Before electric power lines reached the countryside, my mothers and grandmothers did the washing in big iron pots in the “wash house” with wash tubs and scrub boards. I still remember when a threatening rainstorm would send me rushing to the clotheslines to bring in the laundry. Later, in my college years, a familiar facility was on streets in every town, the Laundromat, where people could, with a pocket full of coins, wash their clothes. “Next to Godliness is cleanliness,” and there is something holy about freshly washed sheets and pillowcases dried in the sunlight.

Is Christianity offering anything clean or special to you or me? Is there anything going on in the church house that would make people off the street want to come in and imitate your Christianity? Do you know anything about the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ? One of his disciples, Judas, saw his miracles, saw Him cleanse lepers. Yet, even after our blessed Lord had washed his feet, he sold him to His religious enemies, for 30 pieces of silver-- the price of a hog.

The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

Psalm 24:1

The earth was a perfect creation, which He stated was good (Genesis 1:31)--, trees, bushes, and plant life of every type, whether in swamps or on plains, are cleansing the good earth. Felix Dennis said, “Whosoever plants a tree, winks at immortality.” Oh the blessing of trees, enabling us to breath, giving us shade on a hot day. I was raised in a home surrounded by great Oak Trees. One of the several preachers at my father’s funeral said, “When he had the stroke, he was picking peaches from trees which he had planted.” God prized trees. He used a tree in a perfect garden to show, for time and eternity, that you can do nothing to save yourself. He established His authority, His perfection through trees, plants, and animals. There was just one tree that was His, and He said, “Don’t touch it.” Man needs to go to God’s Laundromat for a good cleansing-- spiritually, morally, and physically. The healing of diseases starts with ridding the body of toxins, poisons, and un-cleanliness. The healing of the personhood, the healing of nations, and the healing of a sin-sick world, is a minor action to an awesome God.