Pets bring a bit of mess into our lives. Baxter brings tuffs of hair with him in every situation. I have learned to live with a lint remover as part of my preparation to appear in public. The hack of a hairball with its coughed up residue is just a part of routine cat behavior. I have learned to whisk away the results as soon as it happens. Traces of litter track from Baxter’s box. He splashes the water in his dish to get it to move before he drinks, and the puddles left are my job to wipe. A perfectly neat and clean life is not possible with a pet. The owner becomes the janitor, or else the shared world becomes a health hazard for everyone.
Living with God can get messy as well. When we look at the doctrines, moral principles, and liturgical norms of our church, we like to pretend that it is so clear and well packaged that there is no question what it takes to live faithfully. But when the Word became flesh, God took on our messy human existence. Here people are weak, and their resolve is sometimes fickle. Circumstances create contradictions between goods that are hard to figure out. Tragedies render persons incapable of caring for themselves and each other. These conditions can cause people to lose hope and tempt them to give up trying for a better way. What’s the use? Solve one problem, clean one mess and another comes around the corner before you can catch your breath. Life’s a mess.
Yes, but within the mess there is love, gratitude, help from others and genuine concern to make life better for everyone. God is the source of this Spirit hidden in the heart of our humanity. But if we try too hard to keep it all neat and clean, clear and unambiguous, straight and narrow, we won’t see this Holy Spirit. We will only see the mess. We will only measure how far off the mark we or others are. We will only condemn the faults and failures and not see the persons struggling to find God in the mess. That was the Scribes’, Pharisees’ and temple officials’ problem in Jesus’ day, and likewise, it can be our problem in our day.
Yes, pets are messy, but despite all the loose hair, spilt food and drink, paw tracks and floor deposits, they bring joy and companionship to our lives. Despite the messiness of life, God brings much more to our lives. His grace assures us that all will be well. His love upholds us when all else seems lost. His life is stronger than death, and so brings hope and peace beyond the grave. Yes, it’s worth the mess to find the divine meaning of it all.
