8th October 2025

Have you ever thought about how much time we spend cleaning up messes? From minor to major, messes happen, and they have to be taken care of. Life has been like that since Adam and Eve. We make our own, others make them and some just happen, as in bad weather or stock market crashes. For a while, I bought into the idea that we humans are so messy – read wicked and sinful – that God could only look at us through the blood of Jesus. Otherwise, he kept his distance and held his nose. 

But when Jesus came to be with us as one of us, he entered through the mess of childbirth. He grew up working with his hands, getting sweaty and building calluses. He ate with tax collectors (scum of Jewish society), rubbed shoulders with fishermen (a smelly and messy job) and touched and healed women (including the unclean ones). Then he willingly went to his death by one of the messiest, most brutal and painful methods of corporal punishment. 

Jesus never shied away from the messiness of being human and he has never held his nose at us. He’s not the kind of God who holds us at arm’s length, like someone who’s afraid of a dirty nappy. He’s like the mother who lovingly takes that smelly, messy baby in her arms, cleans him up and dresses him in her own sparkling clean clothes of righteousness. We never have to be afraid that we are too dirty, messy or smelly for Jesus. That’s how much he loves us! 

First published on 26 August 2025, at www.gemsofgodsgrace.wordpress.com a personal blog which is not sponsored by Grace Communion International.

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