The Ultimate Power Cleanser

Snow and ice covers our front yard in a beautiful, clean, white blanket.

Up until a few months ago, I had lived all of my life in California – the Golden State. The land of sunshine. We moved to Oklahoma in September of 2008, and when winter arrived, I quickly discovered that I had moved not only to a different state, but a whole different universe.

For the first time ever, I woke up one day in late January to a white world. During the night, an ice storm had hit and the world outside my window was cloaked in several inches of snow and ice. Beautiful. Cold. Pure, pristine white. Not a footprint, not a smudge, no indication whatsoever of having been touched by anything save the hand of God.

It took my breath away – and not just because it was too cold to breathe. I saw in all that unspoiled purity what God must have seen in the first man at the moment He dropped His leftover dust back onto the ground, brushed off His hands and gazed at His new creation. The mud man was perfect! Totally pure. Innocent of wrongdoing, not marred by impure thinking, untouched by sin. Adam was a spic-and-span, immaculate, perfectly clean slate, just waiting to be filled with something, be it good or bad. If ever anyone throughout the history of all time had the potential for greatness, it was Adam.

Then, with one bite of a forbidden fruit, he blew it. Just one taste of the apple. One act of disobedience. One gargantuan mistake. And, of course, one existence in Paradise totally and completely down the tubes. Not only for himself, but for all people, for all time.

But wait! God – being the awesome God He is – must have seen the unfairness in that situation, because He offered a loophole. Granted, we don’t live anywhere close to Paradise. Yes, we’re all still stained with sin. We must deal with a lack of innate innocence and an impure mind in which unclean thoughts too often take root. Our existence is filled with things that aren’t like God.

BUT….

Thank God for that big ol’ “but”! It means we have an advocate with the Father. We have the right to come boldly to His throne of grace – every day…every hour…every minute, if necessary, and have all uncleanness of mind, heart, and body swept under His blood. Talk about the ultimate power cleanser! When we walk away from a session of repentance with our God, we look like Adam looked the day God first breathed breath into his body. Like the snow outside my window, we're pure and clean and untouched by filth.

We look like – indeed, we are…new creatures. II Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Isn’t it great to know that we can be made new every day of our lives? Every morning, we can awaken to a clean slate, just like Adam. Every day, we have a brand new chance to keep “the snow” pristine white.

Do we bite the apple…or don’t we?

Precious Lord, I want You to look at me just the way You looked at Adam on his first day of life. I want to be a clean slate – pure and undefiled before You. Please wash away all my sins with Your power-cleansing blood. Create a clean heart in me, and make me what I should be. And God, help me every day to make right and godly decisions, not marring the immaculate slate You so graciously bestow on me with Your forgiveness. I want to be clean in Your eyes. I want to be pure. I want to be saved! Amen