washed clean

Today we went to one of the barrios in Alajuelita - one of the poorest counties in Costa Rica. The neighborhood consisted primarily of Nicaraugians who had transplanted to Costa Rica for a better life. If the poor corrugated metal shacks where a better life for them, I can't imagine what life looked like before.

We had so much fun playing with the kids, but it was extremely dirty. We played in a dung filled, dust bowl with sewage water streaming down in rivers through the makeshift concrete gutters beside the houses. When we got there, children appeared from many of the rusty doorways and quickly ran out to join us in playing with the jump rope, coloring pages and games of tag over piles of abandoned rubbish.

I've been dirty before, but today I felt filthy, from the snuggles with snotty children, to the superfine dust that filled every crevice, I looked and felt utterly disgusting.

It's amazing how I shower ever single day and never appreciate it as much as I do on days like today. I feel like a person transformed. I've come away clean, no longer covered in the stench of this world, but have been made into something fresh, good smelling and sparkling clean.

What a picture of Christ's transformative work in our lives.

"We are all infected and impute with sun. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags." Isaiah 64:7

I once sat,  covered in the mire of my own sins. My identity was wrapped in this barrio of the world when Jesus came and plucked me out of my own filth to cleanse me from my sins.

"Jesus answered, 'unless I wash you, you have no part with me.'" John 13:8

"How lovely are the feet of those who bring good news." Isaiah 52:7