(I’m not sure how I came on this story, but if you gave it to me, thank you.)
A woman looked out her kitchen window and observed her new neighbor hanging
out her wash while her husband consumed his breakfast. She began to complain
about how this “new neighbor lady”, whom she hadn’t even yet met, needed to do
something about the ‘dingy’ clothes she was putting out on the line. “Doesn’t she
know how bad it looks to the neighborhood to hang out wash that is so gray and
dull?”, she said. Her comments continued each morning, as this “terrible” lady hung
out wash each day. “I have never seen anyone so proud to display their dirty laundry
in public. It’s as if she doesn’t even care. If it’s still dingy and dirty looking tomorrow,
I’m going over and set her straight!”
The next morning she looked out her window and much to her surprise, the
neighbor’s dingy laundry was as bright and colorful as she had ever seen! She exclaimed
to her husband, “I can’t believe how good her wash looks today. I wonder
who talked to her and set her straight?” Her husband paused between bites of his
breakfast and said, “I don’t think anyone told her anything, I just washed your window.”
So many times we look at others’ perceived faults through the dirty and dingy windows
of our own lives. We are so sure that it’s someone else that is messing up; we
fail to realize it is we who are the problem. Self-examination is like “doing windows”…
it enables us to see clearly our own faults. When we see how much in need
of the grace of God we are because of our sins, we then are more likely to extend
grace to others for their shortcomings. Jesus told us to “clean our windows”…
Luke 6:41-42…"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye
and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your
brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see
the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and
then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.”
So: Do you do windows? Perhaps we should start.