Ah, Would He Had Washed Me

I FOLLOW up the preceding story of the writing of “I Saw God Wash the World” with the reason why I think this poem appeals to so many people. It is because the last verse has in it the implications of redemption, conversion, rebirth, and the changed life—the thing which happened to Jesus on the River Jordan, and the thing which happened to Paul on the road to Damascus. That is a universal hunger of the human soul, expressed in the psalm: “Purge me with 135 hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” .

Several years after writing the poem I changed the last line in it, and that is the only change which has been made. Instead of using the figure of “that old pepper tree,” which I first used, I changed it to “that old white birch tree” for two reasons. First, the pepper tree is a tropical tree and is not as universally known as a white birch tree. Second, the image of a white birch tree is one of immaculate cleanness in itself, and says exactly what I was trying to say.

It is a great preaching idea which reoccurs frequently in both the Old and the New Testament—the idea of the cleansed soul, the new start, the washed spirit. The last four lines are the heart of the preaching possibilities and the spiritual mean¬ ing of this poem: I saw God wash the world last night. Ah, would He had washed me As clean of all my dust and dirt As that old white birch tree. The Bible frequently reiterates that theme: “May I not wash in them, and be clean?” (II Kings 5:12.)

“I will wash mine hands in innocency.” (Ps. 26:6.) “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity.” (Ps. 51:2.)

“Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Ps. 51:7.) “Wash you, make you clean! (Isa. 1:16.)

“Wash thine heart!” (Jer. 4:14.) “Go wash in the pool of Siloam!” (John 9:7.) “That.. . washed us from our sins.” (Rev.

1:5.) “They . . . have washed their robes.” (Rev. 7:14.) «$*j«j* 136