Ashes

{Jeremiah 13}

“More soap?”

“Here.”

“Good. Now the brush.”

“Here.”

“Don’t you have a stiffer one?”

“We have already rubbed him raw and he’s just a black as ever.”

“Then I’ll wash him more, that’s all.”*

---

The words from a favorite Christian classic enter my ears, yet don’t stop there.
They enter my heart…

To us it seems so obvious. Of course you can’t wash off an Ethiopian’s rich skin tone.
It’s enough to be irritated about. Don’t they realize their efforts are futile?

Yet, do we?

Do we realize the utter impossibility of transforming our lives (or anyone's for that matter) into the image of Christ through our own endeavors?

Completely. Hopeless.

But I have news for you…
He has soap and brush infinitely more powerful than anything the two attempting to wash the Ethiopian possessed.

“… for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap.”**

Yes, soap made from ashes. And a fire to turn dross into ashes.

Ashes.

Only when our dross is burst to ashes can we be instruments in the cleansing process.
And if my ashes can be someone’s salvation, then Lord, let me be burned…

Regardless of the pain.



* {Pilgrim’s Progress}
** {Malachi 3:2}