Magic Soap

I know that through my faith I don’t believe in magic. But if anything was to persuade me otherwise it would be this bar of soap.

I was given it by an elderly lady in a congregation I used to be a part of. I think I must have mentioned having to deal with stained clothes in my washing and so she presented me with this bar of soap.

I can’t remember what she called it and, while I thought it was lovely at the time, I didn’t think I would ever use it. It was so brown and murky in colour I couldn’t imagine it getting anything off a piece of clothing.

Well, one day I could not budge a certain stain on my shirt. And of course, it was one of my favourite shirts. So, as a last resort, I reached for this ugly bar of soap. I vaguely remembered her saying you just had to wet it and then rub it on the material. So I did.

It left a brownish mark on the shirt but it was already ruined so I had nothing to lose. I tossed it through the wash – for the third time! – and hoped for the best.

To my utter surprise when the cycle had finished my shirt was clean. The stain had disappeared!

And so, every now and again, when I find a stain that’s hard to budge, I whip out this ugly bar of soap and have confidence the stain will be removed.

This bar of soap could be a good representation of how God makes our lives clean from sin. The act of Jesus dying on the cross was ugly. It was brutal and dirty and ugly.

And yet, from that act we are washed clean. It doesn’t matter what we’ve done or how bad the sin, Jesus’ love and grace is able to remove it. Every time.

And we can have the confidence that no matter who we are or what we’ve done, God can remove the ugly, dirty, filthy parts of our lives.

Lord, thank You for Your incredible sacrifice. Through Your love I am given life. Amen.

What is in your life that you need God to remove?

forgiven, magic, sin, soap, stain, washing