Isaiah 1:18 says Come now, let’s settle this, says the Lord.  Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow.  Though they are red like crimson I will make them as white as snow.

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This piece came as a result of reading definitions and scriptures on reconciliation and I kept being referred to the cleansing of my sin by Christ’s sacrifice and His blood.  The shocking contrast between scarlet and white proclaims the transition from guilt to purity through God’s act of reconciliation.  The hostility between me and God was ended through the cleansing and washing of my sins by Christ’s death and that cleansing is a continuous action—not once but every day.

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To translate the act of cleansing into an image, I wet the paper and washed the red paint over the pristine stretched white paper, letting it run as it wanted, but stopping it before it reached the bottom in order to leave some of the paper clean.   When I was done, I kept wanting to turn the piece upside down, thinking how unlike human reasoning…..a staining red pigment, washing something to white?  I then recalled an old hymn I used to sing as a little girl in church—probably at revival meetings—and it became a nostalgic piece.  At that time, I didn’t realize the significance of the words, but now I can share in it’s expression, having accepted God’s provision of cleansing for me.  Join me in going back in time to remember this hymn written in the 1800’s by James Nicholson,  a Christian layman who spent his entire life as a clerk in the post office in Philadelphia and always active in the work of the Wharton Street Methodist Episcopal Church.

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Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole;

I want thee forever to live in my soul,

Break down ev’ry idol, cast out ev’ry foe—

Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

 

Lord Jesus, look down from Thy throne in the skies 

and help me to make a complete sacrifice.

I give up myself and whatever I know—

Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

 

Lord Jesus, for this I must humbly entreat;

I wait, blessed Lord, at Thy crucified feet.

By faith, for my cleansing I see Thy blood flow—

Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

 

Lord Jesus, Thou seest I patiently wait,

Come now and within me a new heart create.

To those who have sought Thee Thou never saidist “No”—

Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

 

Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow—

Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”*

 

I don’t need to say anything more but to thank the Lord Jesus for His cleansing me from my sin.  Amen!