Spotted

The road past our farm is a "tar and chip" hard road. The township put a fresh layer of tar and pea gravel (chips) on it 2 weeks ago. They did a very good job and the surface was smooth and uniform. The gravel chips completely cover the layer of tar, which dries hard and glues the chips solid. But, when the temperature gets above 85 degrees and the sun is shining, the tar softens and melts, and the chips get loose.

I was hauling straw bales home from the field one very hot afternoon last week, and the tractor tires started throwing tar covered chips at me. They would stick to my clothes, my bare arms, and (because of a hole in my jeans) my exposed knee. I would brush them off as quickly as I could, but I ended the day spotted by sticky, black tar.

I thought of this today after hearing the testimonies and attending the baptisms of some new, young believers. How wonderful it is to be clean, unspotted by the "world", yet how easy it is to let ourselves be made dirty by the world around us. There are so many distractions, enticing activities, and temptations on this pathway we walk, that we often allow tar chips to spot us without even realizing it, or (worse yet), not really caring!

A good hand cleaner and a scrub brush removed the tar.

The Grace and Mercy of God can remove our other spots.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
James 1:27