My daughter decided to put gum down the bathroom sink drain.  Somehow her mind reasoned that the gum would disappear and that was a better option than simply throwing it in the trash can.  I spent the next several minutes cleaning up her mess.  The harder I tried to get the sticky gum out of the drain, the worse it seemed to get.  The stickiness was multiplying and getting all over my hands and the sink drain.  Finally, with some patience and scrubbing, I got rid of the gum.

I thought about how many times we create messes in our lives thinking we know what’s best for us or the right option, only to discover we completely missed it or misjudged the situation.  It’s not the end of the world although, at the time, it feels like it.  The frustration, shame and embarrassment of trying to clean our mess is very real.

How many times has God rescued us from our messes? Our misjudgments? Our disasters?  In Him, there’s no condemnation.  We get “do-overs” all the time.  He gives us a reset button which allows us to start fresh with His help.

Next time you find yourself completely in a mess, allow God to clean it up while learning the life lesson.  Nothing is too insignificant to be used by Him to reveal His glory in us–even cleaning gum out of the sink!

~Coletta Jones Patterson