Denice Perkins

“Come now, and 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 be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)

When I woke up this morning, it was still dark outside, but it was snowing. I love snow. It paints the world in a clean white majesty that can only be God’s work. Even the ugliest landscape covered in God’s white blanket is beautiful. Snow is how I picture what God through his son Jesus Christ did for me.

He gave me the opportunity for eternity with him. But I had to be brave enough to do what he asked. First, I had to hear his words, then I had to believe his words. Repenting of my sins came next. The hardest part for most of is the confession of our sins. That came next. The final step was entering the waters of baptism.

Baptism is many things, but the most important thing is it is how we enter into Christ’s family, how we put Christ on, and how our sins are forgiven. It is through the waters of baptism that we become white as snow.

Peter made this clear in a couple of places. The first of which is one that most people want to ignore, Acts 2:37-38

³⁷ Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” ³⁸ And Peter said to them, “Repent AND be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Then in 1 Peter 3:18-22, he drew us a picture.

¹⁸ For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, ¹⁹ in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, ²⁰ because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. ²¹ Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²² who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

I am thankful to be a baptized, believing Christian that has the gift of grace through continuous repentance of my sins. Christians sin just like everyone else through the gift of grace, we can confess it, ask for and receive continued forgiveness, pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and lean on Him so we can do better next time.

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23-24)

¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. (1 John 1:10)

Thus I love snow. I see in it what Christ did for me the moment I rose from the baptismal waters and what he continues to do for me through the grace my continued repentance and confession gives me. I’m so very thankful for God’s white blanket.