Chief Bottle Washer

What happens when one buys beer bottles (returnables) from a beer distributor of a brewery that closed down in the 1980's? Ummm....scum. Not sure where these bad boys were stored but it must have been someplace dark and dank. Can't complain too much, they are fine bottles for the homebrewing of Belgian Beer. 16 ouncers of thick brown glass for less than 25 cents a bottle.

Yet, I spent a whole lot of the day yesterday doing my best to move the bottles out of the liquid Legionnaire's Disease Zone. I did lose a plastic hose in one of the bottles as I was filling it and could not find it despite opening the whole row of suspects. Not sure how I managed that one...my incompetence sometime mystifies even me...

In the end, only three bottles remain that were still scuzzy and cruddy that I might just toss.

The whole experience reminded me of when Jesus told his listeners, many of them hostile, to wash not only the outside of the jar but also the inside. We might look good ceremonially yet the dark glass of our lives obscures the crud inside. But, what's inside, will come out over time as we live life. I am telling you, some of the crap I saw float out of my bottles was grossity, grossity, gross (as my wife says). And, I am not easy to gross out. Sanitizing chemicals and scalding hot water did the trick for most of them.

Good to know that our Lord knows how to wash bottles.

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