Prepare for the ick. Look out for the “ewww, gross!” moments. Today is National Clean Out The Refrigerator Day. While we might think that this is all about E.coli and salmonella, it all started as a way to get ready for what is happening two weeks from yesterday.
Thanksgiving! And right around the corner in 27 days is Christmas.
“The home economists at Whirlpool Home Appliances created National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day in 1999 to encourage people to clean out their refrigerators in advance of the upcoming holidays. At that time, the company even had a toll-free hotline that people could call into for cleaning tips.”1
With two major holidays rapidly approaching, we need extra room in the ‘fridge. Make way for the turkeys and ham. Clear out spaces for large mixing bowls with mashed potatoes, green bean casseroles, yams, and a host of other wonderful delicacies. In between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a national holiday in Ohio and Michigan when the BIG GAME rolls out brats, barbecue, and crock pots of cheese dip. The year rounds out with New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebrations.
However, this momentous cleaning effort reveals some things that you would rather have not found. Remember that carry out box of food that you couldn’t finish in the restaurant but just had to take home? Hmmm…what’s that layer of green mold growing on it? What about those dishes with a spoonful of something you just couldn’t finish but didn’t want to throw away. Looks like a science experiment at this point. And what year did that bottle of salad dressing expire? 2003??
When my grandmother passed away, we had to clean out her house. Her refrigerator was a walk down a culinary memory lane. There were jars and bottles of stuff that were 10, 15, and 20 years out of date. Spoilage and rot had claimed a few items. Freezer burn had claimed a few more. Grandma was from the generation where you threw nothing away. And her 100% German ancestry gave her a taste for things that according to my grandfather would “put hair on your chest!” Or, at least, curl it!
There is a sanitation side to this issue. It has been found that the meat and vegetable drawers in the refrigerator are the dirtiest. All sorts of bacteria can find a safe harbor under that aluminum foil or plastic wrap. The experts advise taking time at least every other week to inspect the items in the refrigerator, cleaning spoiled and outdated items from the shelves, and wiping down the surfaces.
It wouldn’t hurt us to examine the shelves of our lives a bit more often, too.
1 Corinthians 5:6-7 says, “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? (7) Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”
Seasonally, we hear how the Jews prepared for Passover. The cupboards were emptied and gone through with a fine toothed comb in search of the smallest gram of leaven. Leaven is synonymous with sin. The Jews wanted to have everything pristine before their
celebration.
The Lord used the analogy as a reminder to Christians that the least bit of leaven (sin) that is permitted in our lives provides an avenue for sin to multiply.. Frequent introspection and examination is necessary if we want to have lives free of contaminates. Will we get busy today cleaning out our “refrigerators?”
Psalms 139:23-24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: (24) And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
1https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-clean-out-your-refrigerator-day-november-15
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