Ultimate Beauty

Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

Here in Minnesota-land our springs can be tricky. Just about the time the snow is gone, we can be blanketed with a late snow. That’s hard to take but if you were looking for an upside to it, it would be the beauty of it, the covering of pure virgin white snow. The trees—especially the pines—glisten white. Almost everywhere you look you see a breathtakingly beautiful majestic picture of fresh, white snow. Because of the lateness of the season, the temperatures warm up quickly and the snow melts fast. What comes after that is about the opposite of what I just described. As the snow melts, the accumulated litter from the entire winter can be seen everywhere. It reminds me of how we feel when we lose sight of the fact that God has forgiven our sins through Jesus Christ.

When we drift away from the Lord, we begin to forget His robe of righteousness that He, by His doing, chose to place upon the ones who would receive Him. That robe of righteousness covers our sins and shortcomings like a fresh blanket of pure white snow covers the litter on the ground. It helps us not to see our own human imperfections and failings. Isa 61:10 says, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness…” And Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, let us reason together,” 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.”

Here’s an interesting observation about this last verse. The Lord is saying, “Come now, let us reason together.” ” Another translation says it like this: “Come now, let us argue this out,” says the Lord. “No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it. I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you as white as wool.”

Can you imagine that the Lord has to argue with us that because Jesus died for us and we’ve received Him as Savior, that He would have to talk us into or argue with us that He has washed our sins away and made us as white as snow in His eyes? I know this is true. The hardest thing for any person to believe is that God would be this kind to them and do this for them just for repenting and turning their life over to Him. It’s hard for people to believe that because we still see our own imperfections, our faults, and even the sins we commit from behaviors we are working on.

When we draw near to the Lord, it’s good to reflect on what Jesus did for us. He put this robe of righteousness upon us so that when He looked at us He would see someone that was made pure before Him. This is an awesome revelation of His love and the gift of His love. It is our challenge to become Christ-like. That is a life-long process. We do let the Lord work in us to change our thinking and behavior and transform us to be more like Christ-like, yet we still sin and we still blow it. As we sincerely work at this, the Lord does not want us to walk through life sin-conscious, but instead righteousness-conscious. If we continually reflect on how often we blow it, we tend to get down on ourselves and give up. When we live in the spirit of thankfulness for God’s gift of righteousness, our thankfulness will actually translate into spiritual strength and desire to live more righteously. Let’s be thankful to the Lord and not argue with His mercy and kindness. Let’s simply praise Him for making us as beautiful as a majestically pure white snowfall and do our best to live for Him.

Psalm 117:2 “For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!”

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt