Wash Your Hands After Dealing with Death

In 1818, Ignaz Philip Semmelweis was born into a world of dying women. The finest hospitals lost one out of six mothers to the scourge of “childbed fever.” A doctor’s daily routine began in the dissecting room where he performed autopsies. From there he made his way to the hospital to examine expectant mothers without ever pausing to wash his hands. Dr. Semmelweis was the first man in history to associate such examinations with the resultant infection and death.

After eleven years and the delivery of 8, 537 babies, Dr. Semmelweis lost only 184 mothers. He spent much of his life lecturing and debating with his colleagues. Once he argued, “Puerperal fever is caused by decomposed material, conveyed to a wound… I have shown how it can be prevented. I have proved all that I have said. But while we talk, talk, talk, gentlemen, women are dying. I am not asking anything world shaking. I am asking you only to wash… wash your hands.”

But virtually no one believed him. Doctors and midwives had been delivering babies for thousands of years without washing, and no outspoken Hungarian was going to change them now! Semmelweis died insane at the age of 47, his wash basins discarded, his colleagues laughing in his face, and the death rattle of a thousand women ringing in his ears.

How often do you wash your hands? How often do you wash your heart? We all collect “dirt” in our hearts each day. There are things we see, hear, or do that are not pleasing to God. Going on about our lives without stopping to clean our hearts from these things will harm us spiritually.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10