Faith-Filled Friday - Black Sin, Beautiful Forgiveness

In school, we are in the midst of our unit on Science.  We do a lot of hands-on and visual exploring to teach the children.  There is one experiment that we do that can be a beautiful illustration of sin and forgiveness.  I wanted to share that will you.

This white filter paper represents what our lives were supposed to look like before sin entered in:

It was supposed to be pure, crisp, and clean.  Then sin came.

This black dot is sin.  My sin, your sin... sin we have done to others, sin others have done to us.    It doesn't matter who the sin belongs to; it is dark, black, heavy.  Sin, marks our lives with a permanent spot just like this maker dot on this filter paper.  We carry it and there it sits weighing us down.   We try to hid it, we try to ignore it, we try to cover it up, we try to remove it.  But the thing with sin, it always remains.

This cup represents Jesus

Jesus is the Living Water.  He is pure, clean, refreshing.  He holds forgiveness in His hands just waiting for us to ask Him for it.   

And, just like in the experiment we do at school; something amazing happens... at first it seems a little uncomfortable.

And, it looks a little messy... because we have to let Jesus really see and touch all of the parts of sin.

Oh, but it is so worth it. His love and forgiveness turns out sin into something very beautiful like this...

or this...

 

The heaviness, the guilt, the shame, the stain is made beautiful.   Sin loses its power on us and we are free yet not the same.  We are made beautiful by His love and forgiveness.  And, because we have been forgiven, we can forgive those who have sinned against us.

“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. 

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; 

though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Isaiah 1:17-19 

Forgiveness can feel scary and we can feel vulnerable.  But in the end, there is nothing like it.


Praying you have many blessings and much joy.
Kristen