Laundry… The last few weeks I have been so far behind. I’m great at throwing in a load of mixed pieces and colors. It’s the transferring and folding part that gets me. Maybe it’s because my kiddos are so young, but everything gets flipped inside out and needs to be flipped back before it’s folded.
Life’s much the same. Sometimes things get flipped inside out. Sometimes the things we dream about turn out completely different than the reality we live. We lose friendships we thought would last forever; we don’t get the promotion we’re working for. Marriages fail. We lose loved ones. We miscarry or carry the weight of losing a child. Financial situations change and life is uprooted. It looks nothing like we planned.
Jesus knew something about laundry too. When Mary, Simon Peter, and John entered the tomb on Easter morning, John described what they saw. He wrote, “He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there. The wrapping that had been on His [Jesus’] head was not lying with the linen cloths but was folded up in a separate place by itself” (John 20:6-7).
The folded linen cloth that had been on his head demonstrates a few things. First and foremost, grave robbers weren’t responsible for the missing body. They would have been quick to get in and out. They wouldn’t have taken time to fold the linen. So we can take that theory off the table.
Second, things take time. Jesus didn’t just hop up and run out of the tomb, which is honestly what I probably would have done. When He was rose, He took time to fold the linen and to place it back down neatly. In the same, He takes His time with us. When He picks us up, He’s gentle with us, giving us what we need, flipping us inside right, and folding us to make us like-new.
Lastly, His resurrection demonstrates that though things may look dim in their current state, we have a hope that is indescribable. A hope that, despite whatever circumstances we face, cannot be taken from us. A hope for the future.
In describing this hope to His disciples, Jesus said, “I assure you: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. When a woman is in labor she has pain because her time has come. But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world. So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will rob you of your joy” (John 16:20-22).
I don’t know if Jesus ever actually did do laundry, but metaphorically, He does. He washes us clean through His blood from the cross. He picks us up when we’re all inside out and dirty, and He makes us new. If you're inside out this week with circumstances, friends, lean into Him who makes all things new. Remember that good things take time and prayer and that all of this suffering “...is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
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