A single, blue strip of painter’s tape ran along the bottom of the glass pane of the window. I have no idea why it was there and to add to the mystery, it was stuck to the outside of the glass. It had absorbed years of Texas sun and looked to be baked on while starting to crack. I couldn’t imagine it being very forgiving to remove, which is probably why it remained, but it’s time here had expired.

Sliding the window open, I popped the screen loose and left it dangling in place while I walked outside to pull it the rest of the way out. Grabbing a ladder, window cleaner and an old rag I began scrubbing and it took an enormous amount of scrubbing, along with half the bottle of cleaner, but the tape started to break down as if coming off in layers until only the adhesive remained. More scrubbing ensued until it disappeared completely, and you can barely tell it was ever there. Just a faint line remains where it had been stuck for years, but it’s no longer bright blue.

There’s another window sitting next to this one which is described as a double window. While outside, I didn’t take time to clean that window, but the one that held the blue tape is crystal clear. Sitting here now, looking at the two windows side by side, there is a huge contrast between the two. It’s obvious that for years part of my world has been viewed through dirty glass, and I need to be better at cleaning windows, but I’m still not sure why it took so long to remove the eyesore piece of tape. Now that it’s done, the effort was more than worth it.

The difference is clear. To the soul who is here right now, I hope if something has been sticking around in your life you’ll know when it’s time to get it out of your life and act. Sometimes it’s easier to let it stay because we know it’s going to take a good bit of effort to remove it, but then we are settling for less than God’s best. We deserve to see everything life has to offer through a clean window.