"Come now, let us settle the matter," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." Isaiah 1:18 (NIV)
I grew up on muddy roads. I think I was 15 before I saw pavement-okay that's stretching things! But bad roads were the norm where I came from.
I remember a time when it was raining for about a week, and I'd been driving on the dirt and gravel of those back-country roads. My black F–100 Shortbed Stepside pickup truck was colored just straight mud!
Gone was any semblance of Henry J. Ford's legendary, "You can have it in any color, as long as it's black" factory paint job of yesteryear! Mud was covering everything!
Fortunately, there was a drive-thru car wash 50 miles away in a town where we shopped. It was payday, so I drove the soiled beast in and finally wheeled it into the long-overdue drive-through!
What a difference! It even seemed to run better after that automotive shower!
It's kind of like us and sin. Sometimes we let things like greed, pride and selfishness get the upper hand, and just like the gumbo and clay that covered my old Ford-it gets us dirty!
Isaiah 1:18 talks about the stain of sin and how that can be totally washed clean-going from a scarlet red to absolute white! When we're messed up with our own sinfulness, we need that kind of cleanup! Yup, the full ultimate wash cycle with soap, wheel wash, undercar wash, soak, rinse, wax and dry!
Our spiritual condition goes from Sinful to Shiny, from Grunge to Godly and from Failure to Forgiven, when we allow God to wash that sin away!
