Little Tommy liked to play...
Illustration
Little Tommy liked to play with mud. His favorite toys were a bucket and a large stone he found in the garden. He would fill the bucket up with water, mix in some dirt, and whip up a good batch of mud. Then Tommy would take his big rock and push that stone down into the bucket like a plunger, forcing the mud up and out of the bucket. Each time he would repeat this little game, Tommy would shout with glee, "Push it out! Push it out!" Paul wants us to know that love is like that stone plunged into the bucket. The mud is all of the negative accumulations of life. Paul lists some of them: adultery, covetousness, licentiousness, jealousy, and more. But Paul understands that when love is pushed into our lives, these other things are forced out. Where love is, there is no longer room for the mud.
