Cleaning Windows and Perspective

Are you like me and sometimes the cleaning bug just hits you and hours later you find yourself on a tangent that you never intended? That is what happened to me when I started cleaning windows!

I stood in the living room/kitchen/dining area the other day, and the way that our home is, you can just about see full circle. I looked out the windows of my french doors going to the back porch and it looked so cloudy. The closer I looked, I noticed that my windows were filthy! I then turned and looked at the large windows in the living room and they were the same way! Then I turned and looked at the front door and dining room and they were awful too!

Over the hot, humid summer, the moisture in the air had created a green mildew film over all of the windows. I gathered my supplies and started on the windows in the french doors and before I knew it, I had cleaned all of the windows in that area, inside and out! I stood later, in the same spot inside the house and was astounded at the difference! It was amazing!

Now I don’t know about you, but I hate cleaning windows. It is like the worst task in the world. Husband is a much better window cleaner than me, it helps that he is taller, and I usually wait for him to do it. But on this particular day, it just came over me and a roll of paper towels later, and one mishap on a bar stool, I had quite a few clean windows! ( I now have a lot of noticeably dirty windows that have got to be cleaned, but that is a chore for another day! )

The other noticeable thing about cleaning windows, was how it affected not only me, but the rest of the family. My youngest came in later and immediately noticed the difference! We had a whole new perspective on our view of the outdoors just by cleaning a few windows in the main part of the house. (Don’t look too close, there are a few streaks!)

Perspective.

That’s what God spoke to me as I cleaned windows. It’s all about perspective. The world outside wasn’t cloudy and dreary, it was just my perspective that was. I was looking at the world through a film of green mildew! Yuck! Yes, that paper towel is from cleaning my windows. It was disgusting!

As soon as I changed my perspective, by cleaning the windows, everything looked immediately brighter and somehow better. It’s a simple idea really. This isn’t some deep theological revelation, just a simple reminder that sometimes we just need to clean the windows. Sometimes, we just need a new perspective.

There are many scriptures that reflect this simple principle and as I have been reminding myself of these things, I would love to share a few with you as well.

If we can look at people and situations with God’s eyes, we will see something completely different: 1 Samuel 16:7 ESV, “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Wow, what an outlook that takes someone from complete rejection to a future king! Now that is perspective!

I don’t know about you, but I need a new perspective on myself most days! Windows may be for the purpose of seeing outside, but they can give a reflection, too! Psalms 139 gives a wonderful explanation of what my perspective of myself should be. “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” I know it, you know it, we just have to remind ourselves what we know!

One more for good measure! “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10 ESV Walk in them….that we SHOULD walk in them! If I had not cleaned those windows, I would still be living with that dreary, cloudy outlook even on the brightest, sunniest days! When we walk out what we were created for, we reap the blessings and the benefits of those good works! Perspective like His brings blessing when we walk in His will and plan.

Will we always get it right? No way! Just like I will probably procrastinate cleaning the rest of the windows in my house, LOL! But today, here is my reminder and yours, to clean the windows of our heart. See things the way that He sees them. Look at your situation with His perspective. He has a plan. God created you for good works! The world is so much brighter when we have His perspective!