Goodness Gracious

Ever spilled coffee? This week I was at an event and spilled coffee on my nice white shirt. The only option was to turn my shirt around and wear it backward for the day, hiding the stains underneath my sweater. A quick fix to a messy problem. That’s life, right? Things get messy. We make poor choices and screw things up in all sorts of ways. We’re humans and it’s kinda always been our thing. If you’ve ever heard of the Israelites, you know that they were rescued from Egypt and after some ups and downs with mountains and deserts, a group of their descendants made it into the Promised Land. They were living it up in the fulfilled promise of God. But, that wasn’t enough for them. About 700 years later, disagreement broke apart this nation. They were worshipping idols and not really worshipping God anymore. So a prophet named Isaiah shows up in Judah to remind them of a few things and give them some advice. He tells them to wash until they are clean and stop doing wrong. Back in the day of the Israelites they would have talked about getting clean a lot because they had washing rituals and sacrificial practices for the cleansing of their sins. But Isaiah goes on to say something that may have been a bit confusing for them. He says that our sins are red but will be made white, like wool. Fast forward about another 700 years and there’s another prophet proclaiming a message from God. John the Baptist shouts in the desert, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” He saw Jesus and identified Him as the Lamb. The precious white Lamb. God has always wanted us to be clean. He wants the marks of sin to be removed. Before Jesus, they had ritual cleaning practices that removed the burden of sin but it ended up just being like turning their shirts around and hiding the stain for a bit. Not fully clean. Then there was Jesus. He shed His own blood as an opportunity for us to be pure and clean in a way that wasn’t possible before. From red to white, just like Isaiah said. That’s our promise. No need to hide the stains anymore. Join Emily as we talk about letting God clean the stains and the importance of protecting that new white shirt ❤️