Showered with love

Photo credit: stireazilei.com

Three things in life are certain, death and taxes. The third is rarely mentioned, it’s a shower. Inevitably, a time will come when your body needs a thorough bath or shower. I recall those times back when I was in high school. Who could forget? They say Limuru is cold, but there were times, during July to be specific, that Kikuyu was just as cold, and the water for showering was even colder.

Nobody looked forward to a shower. Well I know I didn’t.  Before you point an accusatory finger at me and label me a shower-skiver, remember that there are 3 fingers pointed back at you, acknowledging you did the same. It’s okay we all did it at some point in time. When I did realize I had to go for a shower, it was quite the journey.

It would begin with that classic AHA moment. The moment you realized that your clothes and sheets were embarrassed to cover you day and night respectively. They blushed, an unmistakable brown on their cheeks. They could no longer put up with your water strike.

The next phase was acceptance. The wall of obstinacy had been broken. No need for interventions, the shower beckoned. Soap, loofah, towel and other necessary paraphernalia were assembled before the long, overdue trip to the washrooms was made. At this point there’s no turning back or so you think?

Phase 3 turns to be doubt. Suddenly courage deserts you. The cold water monster hiding in the shower, waiting to come out  seems too menacing. The imminent cold, unforgiving water on your spine doesn't seem quite a bright prospect. “Come to think of it, is this really necessary? I’m not that dirty, it’s only been SIX days. Besides, there’s nothing that Adidas body spray can’t fix.”

Phase 4, step in the no-nonsense conscience. Someone speaks inside of you, not that little boy RVP talked about some time back when he decided to ditch Arsenal, someone else. He is more assertive and rebuking. He slaps sense into you.“Stop being a wuss and take a shower, you're filthy!!!” the voice commands. You mull over the order and see plenty of sense. It was true, I was being a coward and I was dirty. It was time to stand up and be counted, or in my case, be showered. After an eternity of fearfully imagining the cold water on my body, I turned the knob and waited with bated breath as the shower head roared to life. I shut my eyes tight and braced for the homecoming.

You see, the cold water has never been one to withhold its emotions. It rushed to shower my body with unbridled affection. My torso, in return, wasn't feeling at all lovey-dovey and played hard to get as usual. The water being extremely chivalrous wouldn’t take no for an answer. The numerous kisses on my back and chest that followed were all too much. The cold! Utterly relentless!!! The water had really missed me! I let out a roar like the one of Ronaldo after his Ballon d’or acceptance speech. Ignore the fact that it often sounds like a whimper but it was a roar, a roar of victory. Once that's done with, it would be now just a matter of getting soap on the body as quickly as possible on the body before another showering of fatal pecks.I get the soap on my loofah and scrub away to remove the filth and ward of dirt. Again, I stand under the waterfall but this time the water is not as cold, guess my body has fallen for the charming water hook, line and sinker. Just like that, the shower is over, to be resumed as soon as possible.

I will step out a clean man, proud of my accomplishment, feeling so fresh, so clean.  It is such a pity that despite all my hard efforts I will be back to square one in only a matter of minutes. Dirt is an ever present. How hard  it is to keep the body clean  but it’s even harder to clean up your life to reach God’s standards.

In fact it’s downright impossible. God is super-holy. His standards of holiness are so high and can never be reached after what Adam and Eve did years ago. Any attempt to clean our lives to meet his standard is just laughable because we are naturally dirty or sinful. Maybe I could try to do little righteous acts here and there to break even against the cost of my past transgressions but it would never be enough for God. It wouldn’t work because like in Isaiah 64:6 " All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rugs." They never clean  but just give the impression that cleaning is being done but the filth remains. And if like Isaiah said in chapter 59:2 that our iniquities separate us from God and that our sins hid his face from us and Romans 6:23 affirming that our just wages for sin is death, we were doomed!

Fortunately for us, God saw we could never be able to clean ourselves by our own effort and took up that task himself. Using his body that had committed no sin and his cleansing blood to wipe away the sin of the world, He made the ultimate sacrifice and died on the cross to give us life, a way back to God after the separation sin had caused. Then after three days, he resurrected, giving the cleaning process and full purge of the world’s sins a stamp of approval. Unlike my pain of cold water, He endured the pain of being God yet  betrayed for only 30 pieces of silver as if that was his worth. He endured beatings, a crown of thorns, carrying a heavy cross, triple denial from his trusted disciple  and then being nailed on the wrists,feet and he was possibly naked. He experienced all kinds of pain, all of which he never merited but willingly endured because he loved us.

I can never and will never understand why God loves us. He loves people like me who forsake him, deny him and reject time and time again. Unbelievable. Out of love and compassion, he had healed people, resurrected others and yet they were baying for his blood and demanded a criminal to be set free in his place. He didn't complain but accepted the heavy price he had to pay for mankind. Marriage proposals are mostly met with excitement but this extravagant show of  love was met with hate, cheers that the God-man was getting his just punishment. The result was that billions of people were set free and liberated from the slavery of their sins. All their sins erased because he gave himself up as atonement for our sins.

Imagine dying and then going to heaven and on arrival, being informed that your whole life would be broadcast on a giant screen for all of heaven to watch. Giant as in, 200km screen!!!(I stress imagine). I think of it as my own reality show, Keeping up with Kenneth. On display would be the good, bad and ugly and I mean ugly. Every sin across my life. If a day just had 1 sin, imagine a whole lifetime?!!! Would I warrant a place in heaven after all that wrongdoing, I don’t think so. Then I recall that I have accepted Jesus while I was alive and instead of viewing my sins, I have footage that is devoid of any bad scenes because I accepted Jesus and had his blood delete all the sin I had committed and present me as perfect before God.

What bliss. I could never clean up my act but thankfully God did it for me. It’s weird that come Easter we are celebrating the death of somebody, but if his death has brought so much life how can you not celebrate. I was doomed to die but God loved us and left his heavenly throne to die for us so that if we just believe he did so and confess, we may be cleansed. The video below shows it perfectly, before we were corrupted by sin, then we were cleansed by him and no longer have to try and earn our salvation because he already did it for us. As Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast." I accept the gift and give my life to him, the righteousness I pursue is just my way of saying thanks to a God who showered me with his love and purified me.