My daughter recently scribbled on her shirt with a ball-point ink pen.
Like ALL over.
Before washing the shirt, I treated it with some stain remover.
When I pulled the shirt out of the washing machine, I realized you could still totally see the stain.
I started googling all the tips and tricks to get this kind of stain out, and realized we probably weren’t going to have much luck.
I tried a few different cleaners, but I wasn’t having much luck on this light-colored shirt.
Eventually, the shirt had to get relegated to a painting/messy shirt.
When something is stained, it takes so much work to get the mark out.
And let’s be real, even if you “get” the stain out, there is usually some sort of faint marking that never lets you forget what used to be there.
I think that’s what makes this famous scripture so powerful:
“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)
Repentance is so complete and whole, that after we feel sorrow and turn our heart back to God, the place where the sin used to be is now as white as snow.
No stains left behind.
No lingering remnant of when “we used to…”
No discernible difference than something that had never been stained in the first place.
From large sins with life-altering effects, to smaller omissions or changes in attitude.
The Savior can help create a future with us that has no trace of what we are willing to leave behind.
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
