On Toilets and Forgiveness?!

Toilets fascinate me. I know, odd subject! But go with me here! They are in every house (for the most part), not terribly expensive as household furniture goes, very well used, but oh so taken for granted. I mean, no one invites you over to show off their toilet, right? And it's usually not an "acceptable" subject in polite company. (Thankfully, my mother hasn't discovered the blogosphere!) 

May I suggest that, despite our cultural aversion to it, we commend the toilet's use as a perpetual reminder of God's forgiveness? Sin, too, is dirty and unacceptable in polite company. We often do it, but don't invite people over to see it. Rather, we cloak it, or perhaps take it for granted. But, like the physical toilet, Jesus has taken the ugly, the filth,  and the refuse of our lives and rid us of it. We may resistantly "jump on" the topic of toilets, but how quickly do we wince at sin?  Which, I ask, is more despicable, the natural bodily functions with which the Creator enables us to put off what is useless to our health, or sin, which is completely and utterly unnatural and despised on every level by God and man? How much greater, then, to be free of sin than of the other.

Forgiveness is freedom. Hey, all I know is that there is a certain finality about toilets, which reminds me of how completely God cleans everything up. It's gone! You may have a memory of sin, but by grace, it's flushed, down the drain. Does it offend us to talk about God's grace in the context of bathroom furniture? I hope not. Perhaps we prefer the more sublime casting of our sins into the deepest sea of Micah 7:19. But as I don't live next to the ocean, I'll opt for the ever-present toilet to keep grace before my heart. And remember too, what Christ did on the cross was most shameful, unpleasant, and certainly unacceptable. I think we miss a great opportunity to celebrate the complete cleansing we've received when we overlook the toilet. Really--pardon me--I don't think we should blush when we flush! 

OK, for the Christian there is no difference between the secular and the sacred. This post truly tests the validity of such a claim! Still, I hope this focus does not get lost on us. For its familiarity provides us with both a consistent hope and a constant reminder of Christ's forgiveness of things far, far worse.