The Saga of Bath Tubs Before Bedtime!

“No, dad, no! Please don’t make me!

(almost in tears)

Pleeeeeease! I don’t want to daddy!”

Have you ever heard those words? All I told him to do was take a bath!

I don’t know if it was the comfort of the couch or the insistence on watching some episode but you’d think I was asking him to put his hand in a blender!

We have these moments in life too.

Sometimes the dial gets turned up on a testy moment at home. So we forge this preemptive look that begs for our spouse and kids to please back off. It’s that look of ‘now is not the time!’ as everyone steadily backpedals to the room from where they came.

We’re exasperated by the barrage of stories shared at work, through office emails, and now through Zoom calls. And we really just wanna say, “please not today!”

Maybe a stimulus check had you thinking, ‘oh man, I can’t wait to buy ____!’ But there was this nudge to put the money toward an outstanding debt rather than some new gadget you’ve been wanting so the thought shifted to ‘no, please, no!’

It may not be a matter of hygiene but it’s certainly a matter of the heart.

These situations aren’t necessarily caused by us, but they are revealing something about us. They’re revealing who we are and where we’re at!

They’re requiring internal conversations that eventually need to make it to the pages of our skin for others to read. Feelings about what we see as important and the dialogue that sheds light on what’s best for our health and happiness.

My son didn’t understand at the moment how important taking a bath really was. He saw bath time as an interruption. An inconvenience. An act of compliance to his daddy’s request that he wasn’t ready to concede.

What he saw was his reality being restructured; what he felt was his autonomy being subjected to my authority.

But I knew bathing him would be beneficial. Bathing cleans; the soap and shampoo removes the dirt and oil from his skin. Bathing heals; the soapy lather of antibacterial soap removes the germs from open cuts and wounds. Bathing soothes; the lavender scented bubble bath provides a calming effect to help him rest at night.

Back to you and me. We have those moments when we fight against the tide of our dad’s wishes for us too. We’re shortsighted. Caught up in our own little world. Playing with our gadget and toys. Then He speaks.

We pretend we don’t hear Him. Give some backlash to His requests. Maybe even give our own ultimatum. Or just flat out rebel. Why do we do that? Because we fail to see that where He’s calling us to go would be more beneficial than staying where we are.

He knows that bathing us will do more good than soaking ourselves up in the self-made mess created by our dirty little hands.

Spiritual bathing cleanses; He forgives our sin and removes the guilt and shame of our dirty deeds. Spiritual bathing heals; He begins to close the wounds of our past and re-orient our hearts and minds to live in the righteousness of Christ. Spiritual bathing soothes; He provides a peaceful presence to know that every circumstance of our lives is under the authority of Christ.

He wants to use every circumstance in our life to contribute to a spiritual cleansing of our souls. He wants to bathe us in His love. He wants to lather us with His grace. He wants to spiritually cleanse us from all the fabricated lies and filthy rags we’ve devised to cover our rebellious, sin-stricken, self-righteous souls. Then wrap us in the towel of eternal hope as we await His glorious return!