Psalms 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.

Vanilla ice cream. Why,when you can have chocolate peanut butter? Or sea salt caramel truffle? Or hazelnut chocolate chip? Or decadent chocolate moose tracks (right next to the regular chocolate moose tracks,  vanilla moose tracks, and what’s next moose tracks)? Vanilla ice cream (regular vanilla, vanilla bean or French vanilla?) is a nice break. It’s pure.  It’s simple. It’s really good.

But then I want to add chocolate sauce, peanut butter,  whipped cream, walnuts, pecans, and some butterscotch morsels and then mix it all up into a gooey morass of an indeterminate color with a cacophony of tastes rolling across my tongue. It’s not pure vanilla any more.

Create in me a pure heart Lord. Not one with all the stuff I add in so that it doesn’t resemble the heart you created in me when I came to you looking for your mercy.

John 14:23
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

If we love (because if we love, we know God whether we know it or not) we’ll obey his teaching. His pure teaching. Without all the added flavors. Without our additions. Without our mixing it all up. Then, God, in his three forms, will come live with us. Pure love. Pure wisdom. Pure.

Galatians 5:1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

I love making a mess of things for some reason. I can’t take the simple pure love that is God and leave it alone. I have to add my own twist, and just adding chocolate sauce to the mix isn’t good enough. When I have straight vanilla, the vessel rinses clean. When I make my own concoction, nothing but a good soaking,  dish soap and scouring pad will get it clean,  especially if it’s aged a bit….

Psalms 103:2-5
Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Vanilla ice cream. Pure, simple, rich, uncomplicated, full of His glorious beauty. He can give us a pure heart to live a pure life where we follow his instruction, standing firm in the freedom only He can bring.