Tag: Cross

The Tarnished Bracelet

I took apart my Pandora charm bracelet this afternoon.  I hadn’t worn it in quite a while and it was tarnished.  The charms attached were dark and dingy from lack of care and cleaning.  It looked old but I knew I wanted to start wearing it again.  I wished for it to look as fresh and beautiful as the day it was purchased.  Each charm represents a moment or a person in my life.  Parts of my story is laid out in those tiny pieces. 

I began to wipe them down with the cloth.  But it wasn’t just any cloth.  It was a polishing cloth that had some seemingly magical ability to take the tarnish away and make it look as if it was brand new!  It was fascinating.  I don’t know quite how it worked, but following the directions, the dullness was gone!  Before me sat my first charm gleaming as if I’d just procured it.  I quickly finished the others, and the bracelet came to life with a cleanness I hadn’t seen from it in a very long time.  It may not have been perfect-looking, but it was so very close.

Our sins can be taken away in the same fashion.  No, it’s not some magic miracle that makes us clean and whole again.  It’s the gift that God gave us through His Son, Jesus Christ. 

Isaiah 1:18b says “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall become as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.”

Our heavenly Father sent His Son to Earth as the spotless Sacrifice on a cross to cover our sins.  His shed blood alone makes us clean again…as white as snow. And thank you, Jesus, for that sacrifice!  He tells us plainly that the wages of our sin is actually death (Romans 6:23), but because of this generous gift of Jesus on the cross, He agreed to pay the penalty so that we wouldn’t have to.  How great is our God?!

Like that polishing cloth cleaned the charms, His blood cleans our sins.  When we accept salvation and ask Him to live in us we, like the charms, are restored.  Yes, we may have wear and tear, the scars from our former life.  But we are made complete in HIS image. 

If you haven’t yet made the decision to ask God to come live in your heart, please reach out to us or someone you know who is a Christ follower.  We’d be happy to share the plan of salvation so that you might receive the best gift you could give yourself…eternity in heaven!

~Erin

A Shadowy Cross

The doors to the sanctuary at my church have windows cut into crosses.  When the sun is shining across the lobby, through those cross windows, there is a reflection of light in the shape of the cross that hits the sanctuary wall right next to the projector screen.  I can only see it when the lights are out during the worship singing or after the sermon when there is an alter call.  

If people are walking in the lobby, their shadows will often darken that lit reflection of that cross in the sanctuary.  Most of the time it’s just a small portion of the cross blackened out, but often the whole cross disappears into the darkness of a shadow.  Only to reappear as soon as the person walks through the light.

When I first noticed the shadowy cross, it made me hold my breath when it darkened. I worried that its disappearance was permanent.  I was unaccountably pleased when it brightened.  The outline of the cross in the church doors is always there.  Always. 

God’s love is like that.  Always there. 

There are times when there are valleys in our lives and it seems the shadows overtake us.  Shadows are caused by a variety of things. Perhaps, the shadows are other’s eclipsing the light of God’s love in our life.  Maybe, we’ve looked away from the light and it just seems dark.  Occasionally, we don’t want to see the light return in the scenario. 

Yet, if we wait for just a moment, we are reminded that the light is there.  Just as God’s love is still there.  Always there.  Just like the cross in the doors of my church.  

I’m praying that you see past the shadows this week, so that you can see the light of God’s love in your life.

~Emily

“Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.” Micah 7:8