Il Sogno de la Vida

Today as I sit and watch the snow fly outside my office window, there are a few things that come to my mind…

The Lord said to Isaiah, “though your ^bsins be as scarlet, they shall be as ^cwhite as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

Scarlet is described as a color that is a bright-red color inclining toward orange; crimson is a deep purplish-red. Those are some pretty serious colors.

You have the Lord talking about both a bright and deep color. There is a lot of variation, just as there are in our types of sins.

Snow is unique and reflective. As I sit and watch it I think of how all of us use the Atonement of Jesus Christ in different ways. The reflection of snow crystals to me is representative of how we should reflect Christ in our lives. We should become bright, shiny and pure.

Wool is interesting. I learned some interesting things from Easton’s 1897 Bible dictionary. It is white, fine and soft and we get it from sheep. I think of the Lamb of God. Just as we can become hardened by hardships and sin, through the Atonement we can become white, fine and soft, like wool.

In Deuteronomy we learn that the people were commanded to offer up the first-fruits of their wool to the Levite priests after they lost their inheritance in Israel. Later in Deuteronomy we learn that people are not to wear garments “of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together” (Deut. 22:11). In that same chapter we learn that there are also other things that should not be mixed together.

Perhaps those and other statements in the Bible are meant to symbolically express the separateness of God’s covenant people. There are certain things that should be done the Lord’s way “For my ^athoughts are not ^byour thoughts, neither are your ^cways my ^dways, saith the LORD” (Isa 55:8).