I have a privilege of having trial of satellite radio in my vehicle, and the message had an interview with Natalie Grant about her new album. As I listened to her share her story and the meaning of each of the songs, my heart was drawn to one particular song – Clean. What an amazing song! What an amazing story! I know that I won’t do it justice but we’ll give it a shot.
The world around us is certainly telling us a story. It’s sending us the message that we’re not good enough. The world is giving us a message that broken is bad. That mistakes are unacceptable. That we’ll never amount to anything. But that’s not really the case. The world is being led by a lie. There are those who would have us believe that there’s no hope for us and that all is lost.
The song Clean tells that story of confusion and brokenness. It’s going to be hard to hear it since maybe you don’t feel this broken. Imagine that the wrongs, bad decisions, evil actions – those things the bible calls sins – have created such a gap between you and any hope for salvation. Imagine all of the past wrongs you’ve committed being represented by bricks in a backpack. Each sin was a new brick added to the weight you have to carry. This is the way we tend to see things. This is the way we approach life.
Now listen to the message of the song. I see shattered, but you see whole. I see broken, you see beautiful. Can you hear the message? It’s loud and clear. It’s powerful isn’t it! God has taken the shattered, broken, and even the dead of my sins. He’s nailed them to the cross and replaced them with a new creation. It’s whole, beautiful and very much alive! Jesus’ blood flowed red, but had the power to clean us making us pure and white. We’re clean! Not clean because of what we have done, but clean because of what He has done for us. Clean! You are clean! Washed in the blood of the lamb. Cleaned by the waters of the flood of Jesus’ love. Filled with the Spirit of God. Clean!
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