“Golden child. He’s as like his own Dadda as if he were the very spit out of His own mouth.” I told my Lily about this story and she was a little squeamish. “Another spit blog?” she asked. All of the Lilies of the Valley speak their minds. Good for them.
When I was a young boy, my mom would be constantly on the alert to any dirt smudges of any kind on my face. When I watch the nature channels and see the animal moms continuously preening their young ones, licking them clean, I am reminded of my mother. She’d simply lick her finger and wipe the dirt off my face. Then she’d usually go hunting in my ears for whatever is it was that seemed to fascinate her. 🙂 It always took some doing to keep me still long enough for her to thoroughly do the job.
“Mom! Do you have to?” Yes. She had to. I am teary-eyed as a I write this. I’d give anything to have here with me. . .to wipe the smudges on my face, and on my heart. A mother’s love can do all of that.
The phrase, ‘Spit and Polish’ is actually defined in Webster’s dictionary. “The practice of polishing objects by spitting on them and rubbing them with a cloth; the action of giving something a thorough cleaning, polishing and refurbishing.” As I was saying this, I noticed a big smile on everyone’s face at the meeting today. . .and one of the newbie Dumbo sheep is jumping up and down, almost ready to fly, waving her hand and her ears. “I feel that way when someone Loves me,” she said. A touch or a kiss, a kind word or a hug, a little clean-up with some spit. . .makes everything right again. The heart is refurbished. Everyone nodded. They know.
There are a couple, great spit stories in the Bible. One in the Old Testament and one in the New. Don’t worry Lily. They’re not gross. You will love them.
Poor old Job was in the midst of the worst experience of his life. He had lost everything that was near and dear to him. . .his children were killed, his home was destroyed, his riches were stolen, his wife was bitter towards him, and his body was covered with painful boils. He had lost the respect that others had for him. Everyone blamed him for the calamity. Even his “so-called friends” said it was his own fault. Job said about these friends, “They are children of fools, viler than the earth and I have become their standing joke. They hate me and they treat me now like dirt. They have abandoned me. They spit in my face.”
Definitely unloving behavior; but not hard to believe. All those in attendance at the meeting today have lived at both ends of this story. That’s why we always end our time together reciting the Lord’s Prayer. “. . .Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. . .”
In the New Testament, in the Gospel of Mark, some people brought a man to Jesus for “A Good Spit and Polish.” The man was deaf and had a speech impediment and they hoped that Jesus could refurbish him. “They asked Jesus to put His hand on the man. And He took the man aside, away from the crowd so that it was just the two of them. He put His finger into the man’s ears and He spit. Then He said to the man, “Ephphatha”, that is, “Be opened.” And straightaway, his ears were opened and the string of his tongue was loosed and he spoke plainly.”
The word spit in the original Greek language of the New Testament, means “the spit itself; to spit; to fly; to make a new path.” Like a mother’s love, Jesus always flies to thoroughly wipe away every smudge, to provide His medicine for every disease and disability, to provide a new path, to generate a new man and woman. . .not just cleaned, polished and refurbished; but made into His very Own Image. His Spitting Image.
All pruned, washed and watered, little Lilies of the Valley. Filling the air with the fragrance of Heaven. Fitted with those wonderful big ears, all of you Dumbo sheep. Enabling you to hear His big Words of Love. And those wings that mystically appeared, you soaring eagles, flying over the Rainbow. . .blessed with those eyes that see His Love and His Beauty, and eat from the Fruit of His Orchard. “Daughters and sons. . .the very spit of the Captain of their salvation.”
Freely given. Freely received. Free, Love.
A Good Moment 