WHITE AS SNOW: THE BEAUTY OF FORGIVENESS

On this beautiful winter day, New England received a fresh blanket of white snow. The kind that you wake up to and the trees are covered, branches drooping, it’s quiet and peaceful out there. Everything is covered white as snow, and I see the beauty of forgiveness.

Looking outside, it is as serene as the silence of the night. It kind of takes my breath away with the beauty of it all!

As I look out at the purity of the white covering, I can’t help but think of the verse in Isaiah 1 that says “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.” Clean and spotless, the snow is covering all the grimey grays of the dirt and messiness underneath. It is such a perfect human picture of an amazing story and truth.

The beauty of forgiveness.

One that we know as Christians, but if you’re anything like me, I love a good illustration to go along with the promise!! Amen? His promise: Every time that we come to God in humility and ask His forgiveness for our sins of pride, anger, selfishness, unbelief, etc, etc, etc — He washes over us and makes us clean again, “white as snow”.

How gracious! How good!

You might also like: Gaining Strength when You Need Hope

Cleansed from Sin

Clean is a simple word with deep meaning.

It is defined as 1. free from dirt, marks or stains; 2. morally uncontaminated; pure; innocent. Jesus was the only man fitting this definition. He was without sin, yet He became that spotless sacrifice offered up by the Father to make us “clean” by shedding His perfect, scarlet blood.

I was reading in Leviticus recently and though this Old book can seem to be dry some days, this time I saw with a fresh vision how incredibly serious God sees sin….AND….how serious he is about forgiveness.

Page after page, chapter after chapter, line after line in Leviticus is dedicated to how the Israelites were to “atone” (make amends; compensation) for the various sins they would commit. God made provision for it ALL back then – what animals to slaughter, where to pour the blood, what parts of the animal to burn and what to discard. Even WHO was responsible for performing the offerings was outlined with instructions on how they should dress and behave during the ceremony.

I kept thinking of how God recorded every. little. detail. I saw not just how severe the sins were, but more so, I saw how God our Father took the time to lay out the steps to be absolutely sure that those sins were covered, forgiven, washed over, and cleansed.

“I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me”, says the Lord” ~Jeremiah 33:8

Jesus – the “New” Clean

This sinful nature we carry around causes us to trip and fall regularly. However, because of Jesus, we have a “new” way to become clean. The beauty of forgiveness today is that we don’t have to wait for someone to burn a sacrifice for us, or wait for it to snow again!

To be made pure and clean we only need to approach His mighty throne of grace seeking his mercy and forgiveness in our time of need. (Hebrew: 4:16) In that verse in Hebrews, we are instructed to come “boldly”, or “with confidence”.

That confidence is in Jesus’ finished work on the cross, not in ourselves, and in the promise that He will wash us clean and white as snow again. He covers all our sins giving us a clean slate.

Check out: Trusting God When Life is Unraveling

Today, once the world wakes up and the snowblowers and plows get moving, the beautiful, white snow will quickly become dirty, gray piles on the side of the road.

Kind of like us. We too will get messy and dirty again as we continue on our journey, and we walk back into that world from the forgiving presence of God.

I’m so glad we don’t need to sacrifice animals anymore, aren’t you? I don’t think I’d be very good at it. Jesus paid it all for us, took it all, His love covers a multitude of our sins.

So as I look out the window and see the pure, white of the snow, I see what God sees when He looks at me – all my sins are covered with the beauty of forgiveness. We are blessed.

“Blessed is [she] whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered” ~ Psalm 32:1