The Other Side of the Glass

  I work at a Chick-Fil-A that happens to have a Play Land for all of the adorable, obnoxious, ornery, cherub-like, smiling, crying kids that come with their parents to eat our wonderful food.  We clean the Play Land twice a day, everyday, and as needed throughout - once in the afternoon, after lunch is nearly over with, and once at night before we close.  Cleaning the Play Land isn't ever a "fun" job, what with climbing through the tunnels with cleaner and a towel and awkwardly trying to clean the slide - without sliding - and all of that.  But the part of Play Land that is the very hardest to keep clean is the glass.
  The glass separates the Play Land from the rest of the restaurant, providing something of a sound barrier for our guests against the over-enthusiastic kids who have just a little too much energy.  Because of the nature of glass being see through, parents can easily step outside of the Play Land and still have a clear view of their children.  Parents and guests love it.
  But the kids love it, too.  They love to press their hands and faces up against it, waving and tapping at it for their parents' full attention.  Hand prints and nose prints mar the clear surface with smudges and enough DNA to easily solve any mystery about whose handprint was whose, or which child had committed the crime of blemishing the clean glass.  The adorable pudgy faces that so eagerly imprint themselves are generally easy to clean up after, but present some complications, as well.
  For one, it always seems that right after all of the blots have been removed, there suddenly appear - more of them.  Another thing - you can rarely ever accurately tell which side of the glass the the smears are really on.  It's a lot easier to clean the ones on the outside, because you don't have to open the door to get inside the Play Land and wipe up the inevitable soapy spills on the blue padded benches.  Blemished on the inside can only be cleaned when there aren't any kids in the Play Land.  But telling which side needs to be cleaned?  That's the hardest part.
  Which brings me to the point of this post.
  Our lives is like the glass that surrounds that Play Land.  More than we know, people can see our weaknesses and out blemishes and our failures - and they're not pretty.  The smooth surface that we try to present is marred by attitudes, sins, lack of success, lack of satisfaction, discontent, and so many other things. Maybe it all seems pretty equal to you, but matters what side of the glass they're on.
  Outer defacements can be easily fixed - they're on a surface level, on the outside, and haven't sunken into a deep place in out lives.  They can be fixed without serious maintenance or disturbance of others who take part in our lives.  There is no need to kick out any metaphorical "children" running around in the analogical "Play Land" of our lives when the imperfections are on the outside.  But should even a speck be on the inside of the glass, a full overhaul of the "Play Land" is needed to get it clean.  When sin sinks in and isn't just skin-deep anymore, but has become a part of who we are - then the cleansing process gets a lot harder.  The exterior of our lives, the very surface, can be spotless - but on the other side of the glass there could be a devastating amount of filth, and the cleanliness of the outside wouldn't really matter very much anymore, would it?
  Cleaning yourself out is quite a task.  It's unpleasant and requires work that nobody is fond of.  It can demand hard things from you, like adjusting aspects of your life that you'd rather leave in comfortable disarray because it causes no change to those around you and easier for you.  But it's worth it.  The satisfaction of living your life well can be described only by those who have, and the reviews they give it are to rave about.  They have fewer regrets.  They have stronger memories of happiness and less mistrust of getting older.  They have a self-assurance that is beyond what seems human.  They love living simply for the joys that each day can bring - from the ache in their knees when they hold a grandchild on their lap to the garden they choose to plant this year, the same as last year and the sunshine that hasn't failed the earth yet.
  But in cleaning yourself out, you find it's a task you can't do on your own.  Only a Hero, One Who has knowledge of failure and yet has the ultimate solution for fixing and preventing it, can really be of help.  He's the One I turn to in for my needs - and though I still fail to clean off the smudges permanently in some cases, He is faithful to come join me in washing the windows of my life clean each time I mess up, and for that I could never thank Him enough.
  (And these are the thoughts I have while cleaning Play Land.  Good heavens.)