Just a little Windex

I finally got to a project I have been wanting to do… washing my windshield.  Seems like an easy quick project, more of a quick task than a project.  Nothing to write home about.  However, I have the hardest time remembering – at the right time.  I remember all the time that I need to Windex my windshield… when I am driving.  I am driving when I notice that nice smudge from when I saved the world from the spider. (Sometimes I am a superhero to my kids.)   And the layer of dust that is quite distracting when you happen to be driving up the mountain into the sun … which I do everyday.  But, as soon as I pull up the driveway, I forget.  I forget as child after child tumble out of the car, eager to run out to the yard to the swingset or the soccer net, and I call out to them to put their backpacks in the house before we have another frantic morning of searching for the lost backpack … or shoe… or coat, to only find out that in the excitement of the after school freedom, they had left it outside… and it happened to rain that night.

But finally one morning, I drove home with just the two littles after school drop-off, and I remembered.  So, when the baby went down for his morning nap, the 3 yr old and I set to work.  Out came the Windex and the rag.  It felt so good.  And it was so clean.  And I could see clearer.  And then of course, the other windows got cleaned.  And we disassembled the car seats and washed the covers, took out the trash and swept best I could.  So, I guess it did turn into a project. Especially reassembling the car seats… that is a workout.

Just cleaning the windshield though got me thinking.  I finally got to it.  Finally got to taking that time, to do something which seems insignificant, but which really is helpful.  I sit in that front seat every day and stare out that window.  I drive my kids everywhere – to school, to church, to soccer, to family, to friends, etc… I spend a minimum of an hour and 40 minutes looking out that window.  Every day.  That’s just going to school and back.  But making that glass clean – everything looked a little brighter.  The sun danced through a little sweeter.  The beautiful scenes that I have the privilege to see where just that more beautiful that day.  Every day, at least twice a day, I drive down a mountain road.  There is one part of the road where the trees open up  and I get about 10 seconds to take a breath and drink in all the beauty as God reveals the most beautiful picture of trees and mountains in the distance.  I wish there was a little park bench right in that spot where I could just sit for a while and soak it all in.  And every time I go around that bend, it is different.  The way the sun hits it is always different.  The way the clouds are, or the color of the sky, or the fog in between the mountain ranges – it is a new picture every drive.  And for me, it never gets old.  It doesn’t matter if the kids are all getting along in the back, or not  (and not happens quite a bit at that stretch in the road) I can just be.  Just for a moment.  Take it all in and thank God.  He made it… for me.  Every time I turn that bend in the road, He makes me a new painting.  What an artist.

And so we go back home and I pull up the drive – and through that clean windshield, I take a moment to see the beauty of our yard… the fall leaves on the trees and the open space for the kids to play.  I am so grateful.  There is such beauty all around.   Sometimes, especially during this season of life,  the taxi season, I am going to see a good portion of that beauty through my windshield.  If I take that moment.  I just pray I have the grace to look for that beauty… to look for that grace in the ordinary moment.  Sometimes you just need a little Windex.  🙂