Running this morning by the river, there was a flock of seagulls on the grass down by the water and in among them several egrets, standing tall and stately. The white of the egrets’ plumage so remarkably pure and snowy. And in my memory it took me back ... a long way back ....twenty years and more it must be ...
A drab day like any other in sun beaten Balkh in northern Afghanistan. For how many days had we been driving, sand between our teeth, the taste and smell of dust everywhere? Then to chance upon this ancient city of ruins. The fabled Bactra of Alexander the Great. Not much to show for it now. A row of mean houses. A sleepy bazaar. And in the distance the line of ancient walls that mark the ruins of the former city. And everything in monochrome. In my memory, it
seems that it was filmed in sepia. Interminable shades of brown and grey. Even the fruit and vegetables have no colour.
And then with a flurry of white wings by a small stream a flock of snowy white doves rise up. Amazingly out of the dust - pure white. Glistening and dazzling in their purity. How come they are not tainted by the same shades of terracotta? How can they rise up and fly and the dust does not cover them?
And I at once thought of the Spirit that lives in me. God’s Holy Spirit. How Holy is that Spirit? Because if he lives in me, then He must live beside all that is tainted and unholy in my thoughts and actions. And yet He remains pure, and divine, and sanctified. What conflict, what pain, what grief must I cause, in continuing to sin, in thought and mind and deed, when my life is inhabited by God’s holy dove. And yet, what power also, He gives me to rise above all that is wrong and unholy, and follow a purer thought pattern.
Purify my heart.. Lord ... My heart's one desire
is to be holy, set apart for You, Lord.
I choose to be holy, set apart for You ....
Purify my heart, cleanse me from my sin and make me .... holy.
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