Daily Office Reflection: Cleaning House

Psalms 87, 90 * 136; Judges 9:22-25,50-57; Acts 4:32-5:11; John 2:13-25

Allie is in the middle of the twice yearly shedding of her under-coat. Just running my hand down her back, or scratching her flank, my hand comes away with fist full gobs of hair. Her coat is long so this isn't short hair, but long and fine. And there is a lot of it. I am not understating this fact. Brushing her twice a day produces a bag full of hair each time, which you might think alleviates her hair filling the apartment. Think again. This is truly a miraculous feat of nature, the amount of hair that is coming off this dog: awesome in volume and trying on my patience.

I like to keep my place clean and neat. I have a weekly cleaning regimen that assists in that deep need of mine to live in a clean and neat environment. This shedding is seriously impacting that schedule, proving yet again that flexibility and adaptability are important aspects of moving through this world. I know Allie will stop shedding soon and my routine will go back to normal, until she starts again in six months, but that knowledge is little comfort to my psyche as I see tumbleweeds of her hair moving through the apartment, finding homes of their own in every unreachable nook and cranny.

Jesus must have felt a similar ajeda in the stomach when he walked into the temple and saw all this disrespectful trading and commerce going on in God's house of prayer; all of which got in the way of God's people being able to worship God. He wanted to make God's house, his own house, clean and neat: clearing away the clutter to give people an easier chance to commune with the Almighty. For that is one of the things Jesus was doing today in chasing those merchants out of the temple: getting rid of the distractions that can get in the way of God's people being with God. That temple cleansing can be symbolic of each of our bodies and minds, reminding us to un-clutter, un-complicate our lives, helping us to find God in that neat and clean place.

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Copyright 2008, John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.