Lent 26

It's bath time! "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Psalm 51:7, NRSV). "Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean; scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life" (The Message). "Let my spirit be cleansed by aromatherapy, and let my body be washed with a plunge into the bubble bath so that I am clean and refreshed, inside and out" (New Revised Rachel Version). Let your prayer-writing be imaginative today as you delight in the image of a spiritual bubble bath, drawn for you by God for your rejuvenation.

I step into your grace -- a scalding hot bath
that catches my breath and eases my muscles --
and I let the heat seep under my calloused skin.

It's not just my stiffness that needs washing away; it's also

the dirt that I've been clinging to (not the other way around)

like a protective shroud around my selfish habits.

Wash the muck away and scrub hard by your Loofah-Spirit

until my very being is softened and raw,

sensitive to your touch again.