{"id":4763,"date":"2025-07-22T09:28:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4763"},"modified":"2025-07-22T09:28:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:28:29","slug":"windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/22\/windows\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

Imagine that you\u2019ve been blessed with what you\u2019ve always dreamed of \u2013 an incredible view just outside a big picture window.

You can see mountains.\u00a0And seasonal bursts of wildflowers.\u00a0And dynamic cloud patterns.\u00a0And approaching storms.

Author Eugene Peterson adds, \u201cSeveral times a day you interrupt your work and stand before this window to take in the majesty and the beauty, thrilled with the botanical and meteorological fireworks.\u201d\u00a0And you can see it all from your own family room.\u00a0 \u00a0

Then one day a passing bird defiles your window with a white streak. A little Windex and a few paper towels set everything right.

But then a shower leaves streaks on your window panes.

And the little kids who come along with some old friends leave behind grubby fingerprints and a multi-colored smear of PBJ.\u00a0They\u2019re not even back in their car seats before the Windex and paper towels are out again.

After all, it\u2019s an awesome window.\u00a0And it\u2019s huge.\u00a0Frankly, it\u2019s amazing how many different objects can attach themselves so easily to the glass, obscuring the view that inspired you to buy this house in the first place, and that always sets your heart at rest.

Over time, you develop a bit of an obsession with keeping it clean.

You buy an extension ladder, a squeegee, and some durable buckets.\u00a0You put together two scaffoldings \u2013 one indoors and one outdoors \u2013 that allow you to reach the most distant corners of the window with a cloth.

It isn\u2019t long before everyone who works at Home Depot calls you by your first name.

Peterson then observes, \u201cYou have the cleanest window in North America \u2013 but now it\u2019s been years since you looked through it. You\u2019ve become a Pharisee.\u201d

How in the world did that happen?

The prayers we pray, the spiritual books we read, and the worship gatherings we experience can be very good things.\u00a0They may in fact turn out to be the very windows through which we catch glimpses of God.

But they themselves are not God.\u00a0<\/em>

The Pharisees were widely considered to be the spiritual \u201cgood guys\u201d during the time of Jesus. They were intensely serious about obeying God\u2019s laws. For instance, according to the Mishnah \u2013 the vast collection of Jewish oral traditions that were put into written form about the third century AD \u2013 there were 39 primary kinds of labor not allowed on the Sabbath.

The first 11 of those were steps in the preparation of bread: sowing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, selecting, grinding, sifting, kneading, and baking. Those were followed by 12 prohibitions concerning the preparation of clothing, after which came seven restrictions for preparing the carcass of a deer for either food or clothing.

The Pharisees were nothing if not meticulous.

Faithful Jews were prohibited from lighting a fire \u2013 or even lighting a candle \u2013 on the seventh day of the week. Nor could one look into a mirror that was fixed to a wall. If you did, you might see a gray hair and be tempted to pull it out \u2013 and that was clearly \u201cwork.\u201d

According to the Pharisees, the small print meant everything.\u00a0Perfect compliance with the rules was at the heart of\u00a0what it meant to know God.

Jesus could not have disagreed more – which is one reason why many\u00a0of the Pharisees were relieved, even glad, to see him nailed to a cross. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0

Sadly, myriad “irreligious” people in our own time have little interest in pursuing God because they assume it’s all about keeping the rules.\u00a0Why would they want to align themselves with people who seem to care intensely about the spiritual equivalent of window cleaning, and then judge those who don’t “do it right”?\u00a0\u00a0

Ethical codes can be wonderful things \u2013 God-provided boundaries for wise living.

But we must not bow down to such regulations as if they were God.<\/em>

Jesus did not come to give us more rules.\u00a0

We can spend our days absorbed by the sheer wonder of the Creator\u2019s majesty. Or we can occupy ourselves with what Peterson calls \u201chousecleaning for God.\u201d\u00a0

So get off your ladder.\u00a0And put down the Windex.\u00a0

Ask God to seize you again with the view that captured your heart in the first place.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Imagine that you\u2019ve been blessed with what you\u2019ve always dreamed of \u2013 an incredible view just outside a big picture window. You can see mountains.\u00a0And seasonal bursts of wildflowers.\u00a0And dynamic cloud patterns.\u00a0And approaching storms. Author Eugene Peterson adds, \u201cSeveral times a day you interrupt your work and stand before this window… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[200,962],"class_list":["post-4763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-pharisees","tag-works"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4765,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763\/revisions\/4765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}