“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
Have you ever been reminded and freshly haunted by a wrong you’ve done in the past? Sin leaves a mark, and even when our guilt has been removed in Christ, our memories can sometimes struggle to find peace. The fact of our completed forgiveness requires stubborn faith, so that we’ll keep answering our feelings with restatements of God’s truth, which is our more real reality.
Our sins are “like crimson.” Shakespeare’s character Lady MacBeth gives a stunning portrayal of that. After she and her husband conspired and committed two murders for the sake of power and wealth, she loses her grip on reality and imagines there is still blood literally on her hands. She keeps washing them and says, “Out! Out damned spot!” Crimson stays – it defiles and stains.
But our God is able to do what we cannot. He can turn crimson to the white of wool, the white of snow. However many times our past sins creep up and seek to regain control over our memories and steal our joy, we can cry out with David in Psalm 51, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
Part of growing in holiness is growing “sanctified imaginations.” Where others see sidewalks to shovel or road accidents to avoid, we can see a reminder of our cleansing in Christ; not just something to accept once and then try to shut out the past, but something to be consciously and deliberately revisited as often as needed. That’s what I like to ponder when it snows.