PURE AND CLEAN…
While riding on a mountain road in Vermont where the homes were few-and-far-between, we would pass large pieces of property where there were barns, pastures, wooded lots and nice homes. In the distance, we saw a lady walking up the road toward us. It seemed unusual since the last house we had passed was probably half a mile away. Even more odd was the fact that she was carrying a tea kettle. We waved as we passed, but our curiosity was getting the best of us. Now she wasn’t a backwoods farm girl, but a polished, middle-aged woman with a good haircut, Patagonia jacket, fitted jeans and a copper tea kettle… Hey, I’m a woman, and I do notice these things.
After passing her, we were talking about where she might have been coming from. My husband said she must have been borrowing some tea from a neighbor down the road or maybe her car had broken down… I wasn’t buying these possibilities!
Right beside the passenger side of the car, in the ditch, we happened upon an interesting invention. There was a pipe coming out of the side of the hill. From it, pure, fresh, mountain spring water was dripping into a positioned wine barrel. We had to stop and take pictures. The water in the barrel was perfectly clear. Now, I’m not one to drink from a pipe coming out of a hill, but it was intriguing, and I’m sure that the woman had come down to the barrel to get mountain spring water for her tea. The fact that it was so pure and clean was worth her walk.
I thought how being “pure and clean” is a wonderful virtue and should be worth the journey…
While Jesus was preaching up on the mountain, He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt. 5:8)
The Bible uses the word “heart” to refer to our emotion and another word for pure is “holy.” I must say I can’t describe most of my emotions as being pure (holy). The Lord does not look at the things people look at. We look at the Patagonia jackets and copper tea kettles, but the Lord looks at the heart.
I think, even though the road might be hard, it’s worth the journey to obtain purity of heart so that as the scripture says, we will see God. Apparently, it was worth it to the lady to hike half-a-mile for her pure mountain spring water.