I lay aside my clothes:

            Cap of greed

            Coat of secrecy

            Shirt of vanity

            Shoes of hatred

            Underpants of pride

I stand at the water’s edge and watch as the sea creeps up to wash over my toes. It teases me, giving me a taste of its fresh, cleansing touch before ebbing away, beckoning to me to follow, inviting me to give myself to it, to trust its icy depth.

I begin to wade, to test the water, and my toes grow painfully cold. When the water has crept up to my thighs I have to choose to take the plunge or to retreat.

I plunge.

A sense of well-being overcomes the icy shock I had been expecting.

I feel clean.

I walk among my friends dressed in my new clothes of virtue, forgiven for the past.

My friends are embarrassed.

They see me naked, washed clean of all pretence and sin.

They want me to put back on the rags I’ve left behind,to be like them once more,

the greed, the lust and all the rest.

My naked cleanliness challenges them, exposes the shabbiness of their own clothes, the inadequacy of their masks.

The voices of my friends, the voices of the past, the voice of that great sea of forgiveness all fill my head and call to me. They lay claim to me as I play among the surf and the pebbles and feel the wet sand squelch between my playful, forgiven toes.

http://www.authspot.com/Journals/Grace-and-Glory.109340