My daughter, Julie, gave me a present the other day. It was a product of her latest interest, one which she finds satisfying, fun and rewarding. She makes soap! The bar she gave me is heavenly, its raspberry tone, the heady fragrance and attractive shape molded like petals on a flower make it a joy to use! And besides that, it floats!
(That reminds me of the old slogan for Ivory soap: "It's so pure it floats!") Julie was surprised when I told her of my discovery. Since she prefers showers, she hadn't experienced the floating feature.
Julie is very exact when she shops for ingredients for her product. No distance is too far, no store too remote when she has soap-making on her mind! Craft stores yield tantalizing molds in artistic shapes and sizes. She has just added an addition to her hobby: Bath bombs that bubble and fizz in the bath. The powdered ingredients are molded in a plastic ball to harden. Currently the creative hobbyist is waiting for her bath bombs to dry.
Thinking about soap, I am reminded of references in the Bible to fullers soap. That is a term that is rarely used today, but it means a bleacher of cloth and finisher. Speaking of Jesus's transfiguration, Mark 9:3 says: "And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them."
Malachi 3:2, warns: "But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap."
As a teenager, I worked in a drug store and soda fountain. One day a man came in asking for fuller's soap. I had no idea what it was, but an old-timer who was employed there showed me where and what it was. On a bottom shelf in semi-darkness sat a bag of something like powered clay. I had no idea what it would be used for.
I love the scriptures in Psalms: "Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin," Psalm 51:2. "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
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