Wearing White
I cannot keep a
white shirt clean. This is a real annoyance to me as I love to wear white. Wearing white reminds me of the purity of a
mantle of new-fallen snow under the light of a full moon. The pristine surface bears
no footprints or animal tracks that mar its tender breast. There is not a sound in the universe, and God
is nearer than the next frosty breath. Okay, so wearing a white shirt doesn’t really remind me of all this. I was
carried away by the melodramatic lyricism of my own prose. See previous blog
post on pride.
White does make me
think of light. White light is comprised
of every color under the sun. If you shine
white light at a prism, all the colors of the rainbow shoot out. White light is complete, whole. God is light
and in Him is no darkness at all.
As I contemplated
the spot of spaghetti sauce on my chest, a spiritual analogy occurred to me. After
wearing a white shirt several times, there are often shadows of stains that did
not completely come out in the wash. And
even the bleach that is supposed to remove the spots has a tendency to yellow
the shirt. The shirt gradually goes from
being the first thing I pull out of the closet to the last. It becomes a filthy rag that I do not want to
wear, just like our own righteousness.
Bleach only
leaches the color out, it doesn’t clean. If you have accidentally dripped
bleach on a colored garment, or leaned against the tub while using cleanser, only
to discover a pale band across your shirt later, you know this. But Jesus cleans like the stain never was. There
are no phantom spots left.
We can wear white
whenever we want—all we have to do is repent and confess our sins, and God will
forgive our sins and cleanse us from our unrighteousness. Not like a white
shirt that we have to buy new, and we know that in time will have to be replaced.
With Jesus, our repentance renews His life within us. It doesn’t just leach out
the color, like bleach, like the sacrifices in the Old Testament that had to be
repeated over and over again, like washing a white shirt and never being able
to really get the spots out completely.
So in this world I
will continue dripping spaghetti sauce and other things on my white shirts and
will continue having to buy new ones. Every time I do, though, I hope that it
reminds me that this world is not our home and that blinding, fresh white is
our legacy in Christ. Because He is the propitiation for our sins, once and for
all, and we are clothed in His righteousness.
Scripture references: Isaiah 64:6,
I John 1:5, 9; I John 2:1-2
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