Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool."
THE COLORS OF CHRISTMAS: WHITE
Brilliantly white, startlingly white, dangerously white, such is the sudden descending blanket that can so quickly transform the colorful fall into the starch world of winter. Anyone who lives north of Missouri and a lot of people farther south, know what it is like to wake up to the first snow fall of the season. Instead of the dead grass, brown leaves, and wilted flowers, all of a sudden the entire world is one vast field of white. It can be very beautiful. It can also be incredibly painful. Eyes accustomed to the dull gray bleakness of a November day can quickly be reduced to tiny slits and scrunched cheeks when the snow is hit by the vivid reflection of a golden sun. Farther North, the Eskimos often spend a good deal of the year wearing special goggles with nothing more than a slit in the wood to survive the blinding influence of the glimmering snow. Such is the pure whiteness of the snow, which one can barely look at it. And it is to this that God compares our lives. Christ does shine on our lives until He can see His own reflection in it. And that reflection is so powerful and vivid that just as one cannot bear to look at the glory of Christ with human eyes, so one has to squint to look at those who reflect His glory.
As the days wear on the snow is covered with tracks and dirt and the brown liquid that is left in the bucket after scrubbing my floor. Trust me, this is dark brown. But thanks be to Christ who covers us each day with a fresh coat of forgiveness so that we may wake up squinting at the brightness of our lives reflecting the Glory of Christ.
Christ makes us white.
