It's that time of year again, the spring Holy Days. Thank you, Moses: "And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days..." (Deuteronomy 16:4).
I love both the fall and spring holy day seasons. They are so powerful in meaning. The Passover season focusses especially on what we are actively doing in our lives. Christ lived as an example and died for our sins, so that we could have some kind of hope. I mean, really, look at the world around us. Is there much hope? Not really. Of course, the spring Holy Days are a foretaste of Tabernacles season, which pictures all mankind's redemption.
So I am cleaning out the house, trying to make sure I get all the leaven out of our "territory." I always go wayyy overboard. My husband always has to put it into perspective for me. You would think that allotting one day for each room in the house would be sufficient. I mean, really, I don't have a huge house and my boys are tremendously cooperative. But no. On Tuesday, I decided to turn our bedroom upside down and inside out. Why must I turn the house so? Is that what God really expects us to do every spring? Organize? Rearrange? Throw our backs out?
Poor hubby was completely overwhelmed when he came in the house on Tuesday afternoon. His idea of deleavening our territory is, yes, getting in all the nooks and crannies. But his idea of deleavening does not involve not being able to go to bed on time because our closet(s) have exploded onto the bedroom floor, our bed and into the entire hallway.
Perhaps it's our MOPS Rummage Sale I have in mind. Perhaps it's the fact that I am sick of living out of three bedrooms. Perhaps it's the idea that Abe and Ike are only months away from sharing a room. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. Whatever it is, I have had to reevaluate this year. I do not have to turn the house upside down and inside out to seek and destroy leavening that may or may not be hiding (little boogers). What I do have to do, is simply vacuum and mop under all our furniture and our appliances, clean out the drawers, get the leavening out of the pantry and the fridge, plan a few fun unleavened bread recipes and take a long, hard look in the mirror.
Don't get me wrong, this is the perfect excuse for me to be OCD about organizing. In fact, I love that every spring Holy Day season, when I do go through our clothing, we do end up giving half our wardrobe to Goodwill. But the fact remains that I have a deadline. Sunday evening. And I have two boys. If I am going to be efficient, I have to do the necessary and save the organizing for later. STOFL. STOFL. Say it with me. Deep breath in. STOFL.
I started cleaning out only the cabinets with food, oven, fridge, etc and vacuuming/mopping. I feel like I'm cheating somehow. Like I should be doing more physical cleaning. I guess I need to realize that's enough and what I really need to focus on is spiritual cleaning.
ReplyDeleteOh, and don't forget to clean out your purse. I have crumbs in the bottom of mine. :)
I think it's important to let each do his own thing in regard to deleavening. I function best with a challenge and a deadline. However, when I take the Passover on Sunday, I want to be sure I have taken enough time to think about the spiritual implications of the cleaning. There are a ton of things I've learned and implemented this year, and it feels really good to get some of the skeletons out of the closet, so to speak. I just hope I am actually progressing and not just spinning my wheels.
ReplyDeleteI have to remind myself this, too. It's easy to go overboard and wash the windows, do some painting, remodel while you're at it and then freak out when the actual deleavening isn't done at the end of the week. My goal is to avoid the freak-out this year.
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