I was on a ministry trip recently with some of our amazing team members. We were driving across the beautiful countryside of Lancaster County, PA. We drove up and down the hills, passing so many Amish and Mennonite farms. The weather was what you may call almost perfect. The sun was shining, the temperature was around 70°, a few clouds slowly traveled through the robin’s-egg-blue sky, and a gentle breeze was blowing through the purplish-hued alfalfa fields that almost seemed to wave as we drove by! It was a memorable drive.
A common theme was woven like a tapestry as we continued our drive. It must have been laundry day as home after home had lines and lines of clotheslines filled with clean clothes hung out to dry. Simple little clothespins hung dresses, trousers, and t-shirts for what seemed like miles. Home after home was airing their once dirty laundry! It felt as though the laundry was never done!
For a second it brought back a fun memory! It reminded me of a time when my children were younger, and they played a practical joke on their grandmother. Their grandma loved to hang the family’s wet, freshly washed clothes out to dry. She would always say, “There is nothing like the smell of clean sheets hung out to dry!” In fact, when my husband’s parents moved to a new home, she made grandpa pull up the original clothesline that was cemented into the ground to take it with them to their new home! She loves hanging her laundry out to dry. She had and still has a systematic routine and a very particular way of hanging the laundry. All sheets are to be hung on the front clothesline, jeans, pants, and shirts go on the back line, and precious undergarments are hung on the center line to be hidden from plain sight.
