Isaiah 1:18

"Come now & let us reason together, though your sins are as scarlet, they shall  be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

I can think of sitting down with You in a warm den, with plush chairs, wool blankets and a roaring fire, while the snow whips and the storm wails outside. I hear Your beaming yet gentle voice, "Child," followed by a a brief silence, "come now, and let us reason together ... concerning you." And in from the cold, ruthless winter you draw me in, wrapping me tightly in your blanket called "Love" and covering my chilled feet with slippers called "Compassion", then You lead me to your spacious den.

As we sit, the warm silence breaks to the sound of your increasingly welcome voice, falling like a spring dew, "Adam, you know why we are here?" you ask. I nod slowly, as a child learning to listen with the smallest of utterance, answering, "My stain." You thumb away the sole streaking tear, as your owns eyes well and you simply nod back in agreement.

A few moments pass, as my thoughts filled with the degree of betrayal, lying, and disbelief that have marked my path ... the self-serving, self-loving, and superficial love which I pledge that has long marred this journey of life. In that moment of realization of the deep roots of sin within, your glory and holiness bursts forth, shining with a lightning white glow! In your true revealed and imminent presence, the humbled me sloths to the ground in awful fear.

The pronunciation is looming, and my soul teeters on life and death ... but what I hear stops my pounding heart, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow ... though they are as red like crimson, they will be like wool ... as the pure wool blanket I have wrapped you in! For there is One, He suffered outside the gate, outside the city. He is Jesus Christ - the Messiah, whose blessed blood has flowed liberally over those crimson stains, over that scarlet blemish. His life-blood has not merely washed them, but He has made them white, as white as snow; pure, as pure as I AM. He is the Son, your Savior because for my name sake I have poured out grace to you through Him, that you might by faith given by me become a Child and Heir in My kingdom, which shall never fade away!"