Spring Cleaning

It’s the second warm spell. Spring never comes just once here. The daffodils shot up in February, but I knew not to expect spring that time. There will be at least one more cold spell, maybe two, before the Southern heat crawls in. But it’s this spell where the grass starts growing, calling people out to their yards, raking and mowing. It’s planting season. It’s cleaning season.

Open the windows to let fresh air into a house that’s been closed up all winter. Scrub everything down and start afresh.

I’m currently listening to a lecture series on the Black Death. In some areas, a reason Jewish populations weren’t as hard hit while their Christian neighbors were was that during Passover, Jewish households completely cleaned house—not a grain of wheat kept. This deep cleaning to keep kosher also meant that rats (with plague-infested fleas) wouldn’t enter the home looking for crumbs and grain.

Lent is the time of spring cleaning of the soul. It’s time to open up our lives to God. Let the light in. Air out our homes with the wind of the Holy Spirit. It is only by letting God into every corner of our lives, shining light onto every dark thought and ill deed, can we truly expunge the grime of sin. Giving yourself over to Christ means giving all of yourself, not just an hour on Sundays and the disciplines you already have down, but the parts that really need work and mercy.

It is a necessary season. One grain left draws the rats in.