White Out

If you live in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, or pretty much anywhere except for California, Texas, and Arizona, you may have experienced a winter white-out. You know how it goes: there is so much snow falling from the sky and so much snow blowing parallel to the ground that you can't see a thing. Like the road in front of you or the house across the street. This can be rather frightening at times.

I was thinking about this concept yesterday as Jordan and I were cross-country skiing. The freshly falling snow beckoned me outdoors, and I drug my wonderful husband along with. It was pretty windy out yesterday, and at times, I had a hard time distinguishing the snow on the ground from the snow in the sky; I had a hard time keeping my skis in the previous skiers tracks because I couldn't see them.

As I thought, "Whoa! White out!", I was reminded of the wonderful invention that white out it is. Think about it: you make a mistake while hand-writing something in pen. Don't start over! Just use that handy-dandy white out stick to make the mistake disappear. Covered up. Magic.

In life, we make a lot of mistakes. We're born sinners and we sin on a daily basis. No amount of white out could erase them or make them disappear - only Jesus can do that. And aren't you grateful that Jesus doesn't just "white out" our sins, but that He completely wipes them out? Though our sins grieve the LORD, He doesn't hold on to them forever or hold them against us when we repent and turn to Him. In Jeremiah, the LORD called out to Israel, who had abandoned Him for dead, worthless idols to come back to Him:

"'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the LORD; 'I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious,' declares the LORD; 'I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God . . . '" - Jeremiah 3:12-13

Yes, we sin. We sin so much and feel so unworthy. But when we repent and return to the LORD, we are the only ones who remember our sins.

"As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." - Psalm 103:12

"He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." - Micah 7:19

Praise Jesus!