Looking outside my window at the beautiful white layer covering my yard and driveway, it's hard to believe that this layer is mostly sleet and ice. It looks just like the snow scenes from friends and places just a few miles north of us. It reminds me of the time I visited some friends in Clearview, Canada. During the night, a beautiful snowfall had blanketed the entire area. In the early morning hours, as I ate breakfast and looked outside the window, everything I saw was pure white. The snow had covered everything with its beauty.
In the midst of that beautiful white snow, I saw something moving. It was dirty, and dingy, and filthy. As it approached me, I soon realized that the dirty-looking animal was actually the family pet - a white poodle. In the house, that poodle looked so white and so pure. But against the background of the fresh, fallen snow, that same poodle looked dirty and unclean.
It reminded me of the way God sees us and the way we tend to see ourselves. When we compare our lives to someone else's life, we look "pretty good" and "pretty clean". Our sins don't look that bad - in fact, they don't look "black" at all, they're only a "dull grey". But when we compare our "holiness" to God's holiness, we soon realize like Isaiah, that our "righteousness is as filthy rags". (Isaiah 64:6)
Like the white poodle who looked so white in the house, but so dirty against the new snow, our lives can look "good" to the world and to the people around us, but look "dirty" when we compare our lives to the holiness and the purity of God. Here's the good news... 1 John 1:9 reminds us that "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness".
Forgiven - Cleansed - Pure - Holy.
When we confess our sins, that's the way God looks at us. The same snow that reminds us of our unrighteousness can remind us of our right-standing in God's presence when we place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and confess our sins. The Bible says it this way, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18)
As you see the see the beautiful white layers covering those dirty areas, remember and claim that promise, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18)
By David Langerfeld
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