Needing to have Jackson’s clothes dried in time for school the next day, I headed to the washer to throw the clothes in the dryer before I went to bed.

I opened the door and began the transfer when I noticed that a pair of jeans didn’t look normal. I started sifting through the other pieces of clothing, and everything was covered with a substance that reminded me of fish eggs.

I had Matt come out and look at it, and he suggested to just run the wash again and hope it would all come off the second time. That’s what I did and went to bed.

In the morning, the laundry looked even worse. My only recourse was to unload and thoroughly rinse off each item in the tub.

As I washed off the first sock, inside and out, I began to realize the enormity of the task before me. I reached into the basket to pick up a shirt when I saw it.

A soggy, partially disintegrated pull-up lay in the midst of the mess.

This basket of laundry reminds me of the power of sin in our lives. It doesn’t matter how big or small, significant or minor the sin and wrongdoing is. The damage is complete. One diaper is all it takes to infiltrate an entire load of laundry.

Sometimes we think we can just sanitize what we see as dirty. It’s like trying to wash a pull-up to get it clean. When we know God wants us to throw that sinful habit or omission out of our lives, we just try to clean it or pretty it up so it doesn’t seem too bad. The reality is washed dirt is just mud.

We also try hard to compartmentalize our sin, thinking sin in one area of our lives doesn’t affect the rest of us. What happens at home doesn’t affect what happens at work. An issue in a marriage has no bearing on relationships with the children. These are lies! Sin affects everything. It infects everything. Our lives need total intervention because continuing to wash the load of laundry along with the pull-up just makes a mess. Our messed up hearts desperately need cleansed by our Savior.

It took me hours to rinse each piece of clothing and get off all the gunk. I had to clean the washing machine, the basket and the tub. Jesus bore our sins for three hours, from noon to 3 p.m., on the cross, paying the penalty we deserved. When he cried out “It is finished”, the temple veil was torn from top to bottom, giving us direct access to God and His forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

God is ready to take our messy lives and make them new. Adding an extra rinse cycle isn’t going to make the diaper any cleaner.

It’s time to give our dirty laundry to Jesus.