Upon returning from a recent overnight trip I opened my dopp kit only to discover that a travel bottle of shampoo leaked all over one section of the kit. The leak left a slippery mess for me to clean up. Half disgusted with myself, I groaned as I dumped everything into the bathroom sink to rinse, leaving behind a sink full of shampoo suds. Then I rinsed out the kit itself, turned it over in the bathtub to drain and dry overnight. The next morning I picked it up and to my momentary horror discovered that the tub had two dark parallel lines, stains from where the wet leather made contact with the pristine white of the tub. I wiped out the contaminated section of the dopp kit with a hand towel and put everything away.
     About a week later I took the kit out for another overnight trip. As soon as I opened it, the distinctive sweet clean smell of baby shampoo—okay, you caught me—floated through the air. Holding the kit in my left hand, I pulled back the shower curtain with my right and glanced down at the still stained, though slightly faded–thanks to Soft-Scrub, elbow grease and daily showers—tub as something dawned on me.
    How many times have we made a mess of things or got hit by one of life’s spills, perhaps through no fault—or minimum fault—of our own? More times than not, we try our best to clean up the mess but residual stains always seem to remain. Something else also remains; the sweet clean God’s grace that surprises us at the most unexpected moments.