Over the holiday weekend, our extended family celebrated with a picnic and explosives, much like the rest of the country. But I had a little celebration of my own, too: I bought a new broom.

My trusty old one had swept well for years, but by the 4^th of July, I finally admitted it had passed its prime. So when I made a trip to the grocery store and saw my broom’s close cousin hanging on a rack, I took it home with me.

My new broom didn’t cost much, but each time I pull it out, I get a little thrill. Sweeping is more efficient now, and even a bit fun.

I thought back to my childhood and the brooms Mom used, made of straw. They were heavy, stiff, and often left broken bristles along the way.

Before that, it was brooms made of tree branches, and preceding that, thin sticks tied in bundles. Compared to those, my new broom is the Rolls Royce of the sweeping world.

At my house, a broom is most often used for brushing up wayward sand from beach trips or nudging acorns off the deck. But of course there are a hundred other uses for a good broom.

Beyond all of those, though, are the many ways God uses a broom for his supernatural sweeping, and my little red one could never do what his does.

For example, during the miraculous Red Sea extravaganza, he “swept the Egyptian army into the sea.” (Exodus 14:23) And though I can only sweep what can be seen, God can sweep away the invisible with the same effectiveness, things like evil. “I will sweep with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord Almighty. (Isaiah 14:23) God’s “wrath has gone forth, a sweeping tempest.” (Jeremiah 30:23)

One thing is certain – he never sweeps without a desire to make things clean. In the Old Testament he said, “I will make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam,” and then he proceeded to do away with every family member who was bent on evil, leaving only the righteous. (1 Kings 14)

That may sound harsh, but the Lord’s ability to sweep away evil has a benefit to us these days. Now that Jesus has died to save us from sin, God does something wonderful with his broom — on a regular basis.

Any of us who choose to surrender to him can watch him sweep “away their offenses like a cloud and their sins like a morning mist…. ” (Isaiah 44:22)

And there’s no broom that can sweep any better than that!

“What woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not…. sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?” (Luke 15:8)