Super Bleach
Friday I was listening to Matthew and Mark at work. Several verses really popped out at me, including Mark 9:2-4
Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus' appearance was transformed, and his clothes became dazzling white, far whiter than any earthly bleach could ever make them. Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus.
Mark 9:2-4 NLT
I thought it a little charming and funny that Jesus' glory was described in such everyday human terms. Isn't that how we are though? How else can we attempt to describe the divine except in our own terms? We search for words that do justice to what we see, hear and experience. We hunt, yet we cannot and will not find appropriate words to describe God and His superlative attributes (here's a great attempt to describe King Jesus!).
In that light (pun intended), some descriptions have just enough "snap" to them to wet the appetite of our imagination and produce an image of appreciation in our minds. For me, comparing the appearance of Jesus' transfiguration to bleached clothes made me appreciate a tiny sparkle of what it must have been like to witness His transfiguration or current glory.
Perhaps it's just because I have done my fair share of laundry and currently have a huge backlogged stack I need to work on today. And of course I have those seventeen year old socks and underwear that no bleach on earth can whiten - or repair the holes!
And then there's my life, which is equally tainted by the less-than-fantastic choices I've made and the darkness of this world. Then I turn to Jesus, and His transfiguration. Imagine if we were to see Him today: He's glorified, at the right hand of the throne of God! He is the very image of God, and the fullness of God is found in Him. I bet He could un-stain my old garments. I bet He can wash my heart and mind as white as snow! He has, He does, and He will!
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
I John 1:5-7 NIV
"Come now, let us reason together," 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.
If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land;
but if you resist and rebel,you will be devoured by the sword." For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Isaiah 1:18-20 NIV