Saturday, May 9, 2020

The Parable of The Clorox Wipes

Why are these things so popular right now? I'll tell you why. It's because they kill germs and everyone is a germaphobe these days. And with good reason!

When the corona virus pandemic first started to show it's ugly face around here, people started hording personal hygiene products like toilet paper and . . . Clorox wipes.

My wife ran out, so did our daughter-in-law - both of them clean freaks, or so they tell me. My wife looked in every store she went to, trying to find those darned wipes and nobody had them.

Soon, the bathroom smelled of a new odor - a substitute concoction some Facebook Susie-homemaker came up with. Nasty smelling stuff. I'm not sure it killed any germs but it probably made them leave town due to the smell.

Each time my wife and I go shopping she always checks for her hard-to-find wipes. Each time she has been denied. Until last weekend that is.

We were at our local hardware / farm / hunting / garden store last week. My wife went to check for her wipes. The shelves were bare. She hung her head and slumped her shoulders in disappointment. "When are you going to get more of these wipes?" she asked a nearby clerk.

She wasn't really expecting an answer. It was more of a frustrated, rhetorical question. But the clerk replied, "Just a minute. I'll check in the back." She disappeared but soon she returned with a single container of Clorox disinfectant wipes - tucked under her work vest. She gave the wipes to my wife.

It might as well have been Christmas because my wife's face lit up like a Christmas tree! Her day was totally made. Day? Her MONTH was made! She was SO excited to finally have some or her long sought after wipes! Then she did something that caught my attention, and the attention of the Lord God Almighty I should think. She gave them away.

While our daughter still had some, our daughter-in-law was out. A meeting was arranged, the transfer was made, and it was Christmas time all over again. Only in someone else's eyes.

That single act of selflessness impressed the heck out of me. What an amazing thing to do. Despite having searched for those stupid wipes for over a month, when she finally found what she was looking for, my wife gave them away to someone who needed them more.

That's exactly what we are supposed to do with the Gospel. We are not to keep such wonderfulness to ourselves. We are commanded to share it with everyone we meet.

"Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

43Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, (her lack of wipes) put in everything—all she had to live on.
- Mark 12:41-44

The people who hoarded all of the personal hygiene supplies did so for their own good. They were being extremely selfish during a difficult time for everyone, leaving mothers, and those REALLY in need of these items, without.

But not my wife. She did what was right in the eyes of The Lord. And I was very proud of her for doing so.

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