by Connie Grade
In the physical preparation for the keeping of the recent Feast Days of Unleavened Bread, my husband and I tried diligently to physically remove any leaven we could find in our living quarters. We vacuumed our cars and our home, including the chairs, the couch and closets, removing any leavening agents we found. We made sure we had gone through all the kitchen cabinets, thoroughly cleaning the stove, the freezer and the refrigerator. As we cleaned, we attempted to read labels on containers that might contain leavening agents and throw away the items.
We felt pretty sure we had found and removed all leaven from our dwelling, and that we had emptied the vacuum sweeper bag.
On the day before the last Day of Unleavened Bread, we were cleaning up after having had breakfast. One of the brethren had stayed over with us and was helping with the clean-up. I had gone into another part of the house, and when I returned a few minutes later, my husband and our guest were standing in the kitchen, having just put everything away. I noticed that they had a strange look on their faces, and then I saw something sitting on the kitchen counter. To my horror there sat a jar of baking yeast!
I immediately asked, “Where did that come from?” They pointed to the refrigerator. I could not believe it! Apparently, when cleaning the refrigerator, I had removed everything from it in order to wipe it out and then sorted through everything making sure (or so I thought) that nothing with leaven was placed in it. Well, guess what? I put the jar of yeast back into the refrigerator as this is where I normally keep the yeast.
What a tremendous lesson for me to learn from this! It reminded me in my analysis that perhaps some sins can become such a part of my life that I don’t readily recognize them or that somehow I am able to just gloss over them because I have allowed myself to become “comfortable” with them. It was not only embarrassing for “someone else” to find my “physical” sin but to also realize how easily I could overlook the absolute obvious.
I had become comfortable with looking at that jar of yeast over the past few months and didn’t even recognize it when time came to put it out of our home. It just shows I am unable to become sinless without the help of our Great God. I was reminded that I have to ask Him to “show” me what needs to be removed from my life every day and to reveal to me what I cannot see.
