I washed windows today.  I’ve lived in this house for almost four years and this was the first time that I’ve washed any windows.  Nik has lived in this house for almost 6 years and he’s never washed a window either.  So that means that the windows in this house hadn’t been washed since at least 2005.

More to the point, I washed the door (which has 9 little windows) and window in our kitchen (which is also our main entryway) and the door (also with 9 little windows) that goes to our little front porch.  We had some work done on both those porches and the handyman used a power washer to prepare the wood for painting.  It sprayed dirty water all over those windows, which dried into innumerable dirty little spots.

This was in the summer of 2009.

And so for almost two years, I’ve been looking at dirt.  How have I managed to stand this?  I stopped seeing it.  Every once in a while I would look at the dirt on my way in or out and think, “Ugh.  That’s so dirty.  I should clean it.”  But did I?  No.  I just forgot about it and moved on.  And usually, I just looked through the windows and didn’t even see the dirt at all.

But when I was planning my week, I looked on my cleaning schedule and saw, “Clean windows – fourth cleaning week, April.”  Well, today, I’m in week four of my cleaning schedule, it’s April, and so I thought I’d wash some windows.

Transformation.  My world is brighter, cleaner, happier.  I look out those windows every single day.  Now I won’t be looking through dirty water spots.  An infinite improvement.

Today, I’ve also been reading Shauna Niequist’s Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life (a book with many essays on celebrating life) and she’s put me in a reflective mood.  So here’s what I’ve been thinking about today as I washed windows.

1. How often do I see dirt (literally or figuratively) on someone and just look through them?  I decide not to see their need and just look on through to whatever is more interesting beyond them.  I miss my chance to minister to their needs because I don’t really see them.  I just look through.

2. How often do I see something that can be easily done in my life but I just look through it?  I look to something more fun to do, like sewing (which is therapy too, I know but can also be an escape) or something ever present, like laundry rather than just taking five minutes to accomplish what needs to be done.  I catch myself stepping over things that are easily put away rather than just taking the minute that is all that’s necessary to take care of the problem.

I want to be someone who sees, not someone who looks through.  I want to be someone who does something about what I see, who listens to God’s voice, and takes action.