Clearing up our Christmas decorations this morning and getting to clear up the needles and dust that gathers during the festive period… I noticed how dirty my windows were!

The sun was lovely, shining outside, but made the splodges and dust and smears seem very, very prominent. I couldn’t see clearly into the garden and I found myself concentrating on the dirt and not seeing beyond.

I’d received a wonderful pair of binoculars for Christmas and even looking through them into the distance didn’t help- I really couldn’t see beyond the dirt!

As I do, I was pondering this over a cup of tea and realised how easy it is for us to do this with our lives. We either don’t notice the mucky windows, and peer through trying to see more clearly and into something better, or we focus on the dirty windows!

How easy is this! When God shines His love and grace on us, we can become so caught up with the “grimy” stuff in our lives… stuff that keeps us from seeing the days ahead more clearly, with hope and the knowledge that God is in our Future… that we beat ourselves up with guilt, trying to strive to do better. Or, we don’t even see the dirt and therefore don’t deal with the things that God wants to shine His light on in our lives.

What a difference when I’d cleaned the windows… I saw colours on the bird’s wings, buds beginning to appear on the shrubs and trees, and my heart really leapt for the promise of spring!

How are your soul windows today? Ready for a clean? Then get the vinegar mix out and give them a polish… let the Holy Spirit shed His cleansing light on you…and take heart … you’ll see so much better!