White as snow
We live in the Pacific Northwest part of the United States, and this winter we have seen more snow than usual. The mountains are covered, and even the lowlands have had their fair share. That is one of the things we love about the area where we live; nearly every winter we get at least a little snow, but usually it is not more than an inch or two and it quickly melts. While the snow is on the ground, everything gets a beautiful white blanket and looks clean and fresh, at least for awhile. We forget the pile of dirt that is sitting in the yard, waiting for spring to get moved or cleaned up; it becomes a hill made for climbing instead. Then the snow melts and we see that our lovely hill is now a big pile of mud. Oh well, it was lovely while it lasted!
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could put a blanket of white on our lives, to experience that freshness and cleanness whenever we need it? I don't know about you, but there are plenty of times in my life where I have felt the need for a little cleaning up. I snap at someone because they interrupted me, or I assume the worst about another person instead of believing the best. Impulsively I do something that I almost instantly regret, or worse, I do not regret it right away but know that I should.
In Isaiah 1:18, God makes an interesting offer: "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." We do not use the word "sins" too much these days, but what he is talking about here is all the things we have done wrong. God does not just offer a blanket to cover up the past, however. He says he can make it as though it never happened, turning the red of what we have done wrong to the purest, cleanest white imaginable. That's a pretty amazing deal.
Why would he make such an offer? Perhaps it is because God has always wanted to have relationship with us, in spite of our failures and imperfections. Going back to the beginning, when God first created man, he liked to hang out with Adam and Eve. Every evening, God and Adam and Eve would walk together in the cool of the garden, enjoying having a close relationship. God had just one thing he asked Adam and Eve to not do: do not eat the fruit of this one tree. That was the deal; they could live in the garden and hang out with God, but they needed to listen and do that one thing. Unfortunately they listened to someone who did no have their best interests at heart and decided that the fruit looked so good that it was worth the consequences that God said would happen if they did not keep their part of the deal—death. That was one expensive piece of fruit!
God would have been perfectly justified to turn his back on Adam and Eve, and all of their children, including us. He did not, however; instead, he kept offering deals to mankind, giving yet another chance to enjoy life and have a relationship with him. With Abraham, God promised to bless him and through him bless all mankind; to Moses and the children of Israel, he gave the Ten Commandments, so they could begin to understand what he was like and how they could live together. The ultimate deal he offers to all of us is a trade: in exchange for our failures and all that we have done wrong, he will give us life and relationship with him if we will turn to Jesus. Talk about an offer that's hard to refuse: it's like I am getting failing marks in school, and someone is going to give me their perfect score instead, taking my grades for themselves. My record is wiped clean, and I have a whole new record in its place.
That is what Jesus did when he died on the cross. He died for all the things that everyone in the world had ever done wrong or would ever do wrong, even though he had never done anything wrong himself. That makes it possible for us to have relationship with God; Jesus did what we could not or would not do, live a life that did not break the deal God offered, so that we could get the reward of that deal. That is how much God wants to have relationship with each of us. He was willing to send his own son, Jesus, to pay the price that we could never pay so that we could know him. Jesus did not stay in a grave, though; he rose from the dead and defeated sin (all our failures), death (we get to live forever with him), and the one who first suggested that sin was better than life back in the garden. We can have a relationship with God when we turn to Jesus, not because of what we have done but because of what Jesus did. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." That is an amazing transformation, but it is available to everyone who wants it.
February 3, 2008
