So the other day

Ed and I cleaned a carpet at our new house in Liverpool. This was a pile carpet, about 2 metres by 1.5, very dirty and dusty. There were a number of suspicious dark coloured stains around the corners, and the tricky thing was figuring out what colour the carpet might have been in the first place...it was so dirty.

Personally I thought it was beige, but then again, it might have been brown, gray, dirty gray, faded beige or any number of others.

The others were all for getting rid of the carpet and buying a new one. Ed and I stuck it out and stood by the restoration of the carpet, rather stubbornly, actually. Our plan was to see if we could clean a bit of itfirst before giving up on it totally.

Having got some superduper powerful oxi-stain remover from Poundland, we proceeded to try matters out. Half a bottle later, we waited for the carpet to finish oxidising while HP waxed pessimism about the outcome.

Scrubbing with brushes. we agreed hopefully that some of the stains were starting to come off. However it still looked like a houseful of dogs had been living and procreating on it for a week. In desperation Ed suggested we use the bathtub to soak the carpet.

Filling up the tub with water and dropping a washing powder in, we were heartened to see the water turning black. Scrubbing vigorously, we managed to convince ourselves our effort was worthwhile. Repeating the process again, we pondered whether considering the amount of water and detergent we were using, whether buying a new carpet would have actually been more profitable. However, the water looked noticeably cleaner after the 2nd wash.

After an overnihght soak to boot, the carpet now stands proudly in our living room, drying against the wall. We came to the conclusion that its original colour was a nice-looking brown.

As we wondered at how much work cleaning a carpet was, just thought of how much I needed cleaning myself. When no one else believed I was worth it, Jesus did. That much-quoted phrase 'white as snow' - its been a while since I've pondered on how much work that involved, and how much it cost to be made clean and whole, ready for the Master's use.