For several months in 2013, I worked at a wastewater treatment plant.
Here is what happened there: Everything in the community that was sent down a drain or flushed down a toilet was piped to our plant. We got all kinds of wastewater from residential and industrial places. Millions of gallons every day flowed into the place I worked.
You may be wondering what we did with all this wastewater. Well, we filtered, cleaned, and purified it. All of it. We used bar screens, microbes, and chemicals to remove all the junk that was in the filthy water. And we took samples to test in our lab so we could make sure the process was successful.
But here is the best part of the whole process: after the filthy water was cleaned, we released it back into the environment. It flowed from our plant into a neighboring swamp. The gators could swim in it, the deer could drink it, and the fish could live in it.
I just think that is cool. Filthy water comes in, and pure water flows out. Cleaned and released.
There were times that I thought what we did at the plant with water symbolizes what God does with us.
We come to Him filthy and dirty with sin. Our hearts and minds are polluted with things that are not good or healthy. But God, in all of His goodness, takes us in with grace, cleans us up with forgiveness, and releases us with purpose.
We've all sinned publically and privately. I have. And so have you.
But the great news is this: When we come to God, He cleans us up to make us right, and He sends us out to do His work.
What we did at the wastewater treatment plant was really important, if you stop and think about it. But what God does daily is way more important. We worked with water. God works with eternal souls. That's a big deal!
Yep, cleaned and released. In Christ, that's what we all are. And I can't think of a better way to be than that.
