New from old, a diamond from dirty black coal.  God does not offer to cover over our sins.  No, he promises to cleanse them away completely.  Since I have begun relocating, my husband has been painting our apartment.  We wanted to leave it in good condition so we paint to cover over all the stains and holes made from everyday living and our young growing wall artist.  I started to think about how many layers of paint there were, what blemishes did they cover?  I realized that God offers us more than a fresh paint job.  He doesn’t just want to hide or cover our sins and mistakes, intentional or not, with a temporary cover.  No, he offers new from old.  This is a great mystery.  

How does he do it, take scarlet robes stained with sin and make them white as snow.  How can red blood make us white?  Only God knows, yet that is what he promises.  Too many of us behave as if our sins still stick to us like that crayon on the wall, a permanent marker mistake.  We miss the point, that’s the old you, the old wall is dead and has been raised anew.  Old chains no longer hold this new man, stains won’t be uncovered, because they are no longer there, not even under the surface.  When God says he who the Son has set free is free indeed.  That’s what he means.  

Do you believe it?  Do we still remember the old?  Yes, how could we completely forget it with daily reminders as we walk in this chaotic world, yet those memories do not mean that the old man lives now. It only means that he once did.  Don’t believe the lie that you are a painted wall, covered over only.  No, you are new from old.  A diamond where there was once only dirty black coal.  

Scriptures: Isaiah 1:18, 2 Cor. 5:17, Psalms 103:12, Isaiah 43:25