Today while we were feeding cattle in the bitter cold, I stood patiently at my post, waiting to “swing wide” the gate to let my husband drive into the pasture. As the backs of the black cows begin to turn white, I was mesmerized by the absolute silence that surrounded me and my charges.
As the mucky, red mud began to disappear under the soft blanket of white, it reminded me of what a mess we were before Christ “washed” our muddy sins away, and made them “as white as snow”. In the distance the lumbering, green tractor, heavy laden with hay, sloshed through the icy mud-puddles making its way past me and into the pasture. As I closed the gate, I noticed how the tractor tire’s tracks made a mess of the once clean, white blanket of snow.
As the cows followed the tractor like mice following the Pied Piper, I look down at the ground, and was surprised that the deep tracks of mud were already being covered up with snow. It didn’t take long until the red mud was once again covered with a pristine blanket of white. Tears filled my eyes as I realized that just like this ugly trench of mud scars the earth, our sin also scars our testimony and our fellowship with God. I reflected on all of the ways I fail as a Christian (everyday), and I felt so ashamed and unworthy to call myself a follower of Christ.
The words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:19 came to my mind:
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
I am thankful that Jesus Christ died for me (and you) to atone for ALL sin! As I grow in Christ, I should sin less, but I will never be sinless on this earth. Thankfully, just like the white, clean snow covers the muddy tracks that scar the earth, Jesus’ blood covers my sins and washes them as white as snow in the eyes of his Father. I am thankful that God doesn’t give up on us and that He loves us enough to keep allowing the snow to cover our muddy tire tracks.