Hope for the Future

As you may have gathered from this post, I washed windows yesterday.  A couple of things came from this: first, I am officially out of Windex.  I'm pretty sure this current bottle has lasted at least 3 years.  That should tell you how often I wash windows.  And before you ask, no, I am not going to replace my Windex with diluted vinegar...that stuff stinks.  For as long as it lasts in this house, I believe I'm entitled to splurge on overpriced chemicals to *ahem* clean my windows (a little hard to type that with a straight face).

Second, I had a very tangible revelation of hope for the future.  You know that Bible verse that goes:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD,

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11

I'm pretty sure this isn't quite what the LORD had in mind when God spoke those words through the prophet Jeremiah, but washing windows yesterday gave me hope for the future.  Wanna know how? 

Well, first, you need to realize how disheartening it is to me, to wash windows.  I love clean windows, I really do.  We have a gorgeous view from all of our windows, and there's nothing I like better than sitting in our dining room with my morning (hot) chocolate, watching the sunrise through the trees. 

But those nice clean shiny sheets of glass act as some sort of mystical siren, calling, no, compelling, my children to put their grubby little hands all over them.  The children might not touch a window for weeks, but within a few moments of my children being in the presence of clean glass, little hand and fingerprints appear.  It's almost as if they want to reassure themselves that the glass is still there, being so used to it being smeared with prints.

Roger
August 2008

It's hard work, washing windows (especially when you've got to remove the lattice first).  I hate going to all that effort and having my work negated within hours or even minutes.  So I don't.

So anyway, I'm down on my knees, washing a full-length window, and looking up, I noticed that the top third of the glass was completely clean.  The last time I washed the windows was in February of 2010 (I know, because I blogged about it), and the top third of the glass was clean--no fingerprints, no handprints, no nose prints.  Nothing.  From about waist-height on down, you could barely see through the glass (OK, that's an exaggeration, but it was pretty smeary and distorted).

I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that 2/3 of my children can reach that high.  And the glass was clean.

Do you understand what this means?  This means that someday...some day, all of my windows will stay clean.  Someday, all three of the children will learn to resist the siren-call of the glass.

Ironically enough, when that happens, I will be more willing to wash the windows, so I'll probably do it more often, even though it won't need to be done because the windows will stay clean.

But let's not dwell on that.  No, today I have been given hope, hope for a future of non-smeary windows: a priceless gift.