Terry Reed, one of Holy Cross’s facilities employees, shares a little about the challenges of keeping a busy church prepared and looking its best while reflecting on the one true God who has “cleaned up” once and for all for our sins.

What time is it? What date is it? What is scheduled for the day and in what rooms? Who was in the room last?

These are the questions we, your facilities staff, ask each other every day. We make every effort to ensure the facility at 4125 Constitution Avenue is as prepared and ready as possible for every need and function. However, there are those times when the answers to those questions really don’t matter. Often we just find ourselves reacting to the most urgent needs of the day.

Changing most burned out lights is a minor requirement but there are those lights that can’t be reached with your average step ladder. A precariously placed ladder or scheduling a rental for the right equipment is the only option. The rainy/snowy/wet days have us scouring every room for the latest leak in the facility roof. Snow and ice can require multiple people and multiple trips to the roof and multiple attempts to clear gutters for draining. Highly attended events require us to ensure trash is emptied, tables and chairs are cleaned, floors vacuumed or mopped and items needed for the next activity are in place—that often becomes a scavenger hunt when things aren’t returned if they are moved by someone without our knowledge. Backed up drains or plumbing leaks happen. There have been entire rooms covered in water. Wet carpets must be dried and leaks found and repaired. Bathrooms are another story. We’ve learned over the past few years that some things just don’t flush—chicken patty sandwiches don’t flush! Some items will go part way down but cause bigger issues that require outside assistance. We’ve referred to ourselves as “The old men with plungers” quite often but a “rooter” service is sometimes the only solution. We have case packs of vomit control—yes, it gets used more often than you can imagine (and mostly around the busier seasons of Advent and Lent)!

Speaking of Advent and Lent, aren’t the candlelight services great? Yes, they add that special something to the services but oh, that wax! An old man crawling around on the floors of the sanctuary with an iron might even be a miracle at times! And those pretty dresses that are often a part of special services sure make people notice as they sparkle—but that glitter stays on floors and pews for a long time. Wouldn’t it be great if they could make “disappearing” glitter?

Special projects for special times, services and activities are often a challenge—last minute urgencies just take priority. There are many great ideas that are often discussed and although some things make it to completion, many are coaxed into less complicated plans. Some ideas make it to advanced stages only to be scrapped or changed after careful review. All projects require removal at some point—and then there is always the “storage” question. Storing everything isn’t viable but the most common storage areas have things “stored” just inside any closed door—right in the way of anything that will be needed next!

OK, that’s enough of describing just a few of the challenges we’re faced with. The title of this “Who cleans up after you?” is a real reminder that we all need our Savior. All those things listed above seem like a great burden at times. We find ourselves complaining or going about our tasks and often grumbling. The whole day often has us working at cleaning up after someone or some activity and feeling a bit like the work is so hard and often because someone else was just careless or failed to make the slightest effort at caring about what they left behind.

“Then comes that reminder of why we are doing the job. We have left our own messes throughout our sinful lives. We have not looked back often enough to see the things that we have done or left undone.”

There is but ONE sent to clean up after us all! Jesus has cleaned up everything for us. His work was harder than anything we could ever attempt. The weight of this sinful world was on his shoulders. He took on the job and responded with “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34 King James Version (KJV).

We are so thankful that we succeed often enough that the facility seems to be whipped into shape just in time. Let us all be thankful and rejoice this Advent season for the one that came to clean up after all of us!