Man's righteousness and crumbs on my butt

How was that for a creative title? :) Just read on, it'll make sense. Or maybe it won't, whatever.

Why I woke up this morning thinking about this, I don't know. If I had some big, unresolved sin in my life.... well, I wouldn't talk about it on my blog, lol but at least waking up with these thoughts would make a little more sense to me! :)

I don't remember what I was dreaming early this morning, but rest assured, I was dreaming. Probably something weird like birthing an alien baby. Or being chased through the forest by gorillas. Strange dreams and pregnancy go hand in hand for me. But I found myself thinking over and over the verse in Isaiah, "all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags" (Is. 64:6). And I literally woke up thinking about that verse, its meaning, what it means for me, etc, etc, etc.

And if you've ever done a study on this verse, you'll know that "filthy rags" actually refers to a womans (ahem, sorry for this) menstrual rags. Its true. I'm a chick and that still makes my stomach turn. But the implication here is intense. That's how disgusting Christ finds our righteousness.

So this gives me a couple of thoughts. Without being too graphic, could this verse be telling us that we need to rely on the blood of Christ for our salvation instead of our own righteousness (aka filthy rags, aka blood?) I'd never looked at it that way before but its something I want to ponder over some more.

AND if thats how He see's our righteousness, how does He see our sin? I mean, is there anything more disgusting than, uh, "filthy rags"? And we think to ask forgiveness for our sin, do we think to ask forgiveness for our righteousness? Because apparently we need to. The later question I'm filing away in my brain under "talk over with Pastor Jake on our next date night". I love my husband's insights. And love that I can have him all to myself to hash over my spiritual questions. :) But the verse and its implications have been (and are) in the back of my head all morning.

I'm writing this as my kids are running circles around me (boy, sure glad I kept them home because they don't feel good... note my sarcasm), bowls of soggy cereal in lukewarm milk are still all over the table, Mabry is crying on the other side of the baby gate because I won't pick her up, my husband, a family friend, and some friendly Hispanic guy are all drilling away in Micah's closet, installing the new hot water heater. And I'm keeping one eye on the front door because the three men-folk don't appreciate me child-locking it every time they come in and out to grab a tool from the truck.

So this isn't exactly the best time to be blogging about my deep spiritual thoughts. But such is the life of a mom in this season. At some point I'd like to sit down with my Bible and really dig into this verse a little more but right now, I'm taking to heart the seeds the Lord plants in my heart at 5:30am and pondering them over crying babies, Finding Nemo and Kroger brand Golden Graham crumbs stuck to my butt.

Lord reveal to me the hidden treasures in Your Word in spite of the... physical treasures ;) running around me today.