Little Danny was bored. It wasn’t much fun to have one of his brothers at school and the other brother out playing with the neighbor boy. But, being a typical three-year-old, it didn’t take Danny long to find something to do —especially since his mother was busy in the kitchen.
Wandering through the living room, he discovered one of his favorite things to play with! His brother had left them within Danny’s reach when he went outside to play. Even, though Danny knew that his mother didn’t want him to play with them, he just couldn’t resist his brother’s marker set — especially the nice big black one! If he played very quietly with it, maybe Mother would not find out what he was doing.
Off came the cap of the big black marker. He touched the damp, inky tip and squished it against his fingers. Then he started drawing on his hands. This was more fun than drawing on paper! But suddenly Danny wasn’t thinking any more about how much fun it was. He set the marker down and looked at his hands. What a mess they were! Now Mother would find out what he had been doing!
The quietness of Danny’s play made his mother do some checking, and when Danny looked up from his inky, black hands, his eyes met his mother’s. She didn’t look happy. Danny knew he had done wrong, and there was the ink all over his hands to tell his mother what he had been doing.
Often we are tempted to do things that we know are not right, thinking that we will get away with it if no one finds out. But there is One, our loving Father, who sees, hears, and knows everything. Danny’s mother had often sung to him:
Oh, be careful, little hands, what you do,
Oh, be careful, little hands, what you do,
There’s a Father up above looking down in tender love,
Oh, be careful, little hands, what you do.
Mother scolded Danny and warned him not to play with pens and markers again unless he asked her first, even if they were left out. It was a big job trying to get all that black ink off Danny’s hands.
Sometimes there are things in our hearts that we know are wrong, but we don’t want to give them up. We need to talk to the Lord Jesus about them and confess to Him these sins in our hearts and lives.
Mother’s scolding and the long scrubbing of his hands to clean them didn’t change Danny’s heart. He still wanted to play with pens and markers without asking.
A few days later Danny found on the table a nice blue pen that Mother was using for writing her grocery list. This time he took it with him out to the deck at the back of the house. It was a pretty day, and he could have lots of fun with the pen out there... where Mother wouldn’t see him. Danny didn’t have any paper with him, so he used the next best thing — his legs. Up and down he scribbled, from his socks all the way up over his knees and on up his legs. Pretty soon he had blue ink all over them.
Again his mother found him. Danny had to be punished and then scrubbed and scrubbed to get his legs clean.
There was something else dirty about Danny. It was his heart. Disobeying and self-will are sin and make hearts dirty, and there is only one thing that can clean hearts from sin. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He bore the punishment for sin and shed His precious blood to wash sins away. Nothing else will do. “For though thou wash thee... and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before Me, saith the Lord God.” Jer. 2:2222For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God. (Jeremiah 2:22). “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7). “Come NOW... saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” Isa. 1:1818Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18).
Have you let the Lord Jesus make your heart clean?
Oh, be careful, little tongue, what you say,
Oh, be careful, little tongue, what you say,
There’s a Father up above looking down in tender love,
Oh, be careful, little tongue, what you say.
Oh, be careful, little feet, where you go,
Oh, be careful, little feet, where you go,
There’s a Father up above looking down in tender love,
Oh, be careful, little feet, where you go.
ML-10/25/1987