What Jesus thinks of my cleaning

When I was young, we had a series of books called "Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories". They were old fashioned back then, so I'm sure they are well and truly out of print now. They were full of fun adventures of ideallic children and there was always a moral to the story. 

One story in particular has stayed with me over time. It was of a brother and sister who were wanting to earn some money so were doing odd jobs around town. They helped a neighbour clean out his garden shed. Once finished, they came to the man for their payment and he knew at once they had not done a satisfactory job. You see, the moral of this particular story was that he had hidden their payment around the shed and if they had actually cleaned everything as they were meant to, they would have found the payment already. (Tricky guy! : )

As kids we also had jobs to do around the house, and I remember my mum often sending us back to finish a job that wasn't up to scratch. She would often quote that verse from the Bible about 'work as if you're working for the Lord' (Colossians 3:23) . 

It's funny how things stay with you and become the voices in your head. 

Often when I'm doing menial tasks around the house, I think of that Bible verse, and also that story of the siblings and the garden shed. Not that I have money hidden in all the nooks and crannies of my home (that would be quite the incentive!) but to have a standard of excellence. Of going the extra mile.  

It wasn't until recently when doing the vacuuming that I once again was remembering that childhood story while I was contemplating whether or not to move some things to vacuum under them or just take the short cut and leave it. Those little voices reminded to do a quality job.

As quick as those reminders came in though, another thought counteracted them; does Jesus really hang over me while I do the vacuuming? With his gloved hand checking for dust after I've finished my weekly clean? I don't think so! You know what I think he does? In the words of the more modern childhood story of 'Babe', I think He says; "that'll do pig, that'll do"! 

I think he sees my efforts. He created the children that are going to come back and undo all my cleaning by the end of the day. I think he thinks I'm awesome for just getting out the vacuum cleaner to be quite frank. Not to mention I've tracked down the right extension cord that reaches the furthest through my house without un-plugging/re-plugging a million times. And I've occupied a child who still freaks out at the noise of the vacuum cleaner. I don't think he cares if I dust the skirting boards as I go. Whether there's dust bunnies behind the door. (Or....maybe He thinks I need a cleaner! hahaha : )

He sees me. He has a general standard of excellence, for sure. But he is kind. He doesn't want me to be overwhelmed. He is the Prince of Peace. We just do our best for where we are in life right now. And he gets it.

So I've changed how I think about my cleaning these days. I imagine if Jesus was actually cleaning in the room with me, instead of holding the golden standard, he'd just say the word and turn my clutter & dirt into order & sparkling floors, and then we'd sit and chat. 
I'm sure he's very capable of doing that. He did something similar with water once...

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