White

One of the first practical things I learned as a mommy is that white is pretty much off limits-- at least for me. It just takes too much work to get things like chocolate, ketchup, mustard, red Kool-aid, grape juice, blood, etc. out of white fabric!

I've been singing the chorus of "Beautiful Scandalous Night" for a couple of weeks now. The phrase that really got the song "stuck" for me was : "forever washed white". That is SO HUGE!!! First the "forever" part. I can't even wrap my mind around forever-- I've only got 30 years of life in my pocket! Then "washed". I do LOTS of laundry. (Six people can make a mountain of laundry in less than a day!) So "forever washed" seems almost like an oxymoron. But "forever washed WHITE". Even whites don't STAY white. But in Christ my sins are "forever washed white". God no longer sees even the residue of my sin, only Christ's righteousness! WOW!

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Psalms 51:7
 
"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 like crimson, they shall become like wool.
Isaiah 1:18
 
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
Micah 7:18-19
 
God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
1 Corinthians 1:28-31