Jul
11
2012
White Out
Posted in Forgiveness 4 Comments
Sitting here at my desk, I look up to the bookshelf above me.
There are seven compartments that hold envelopes, mail…things I need at an arm’s reach.
In one of the compartments there is a bottle of White Out Correction Fluid.
If you ever used a typewriter, White Out was indispensable.
Before computers and spell check, there were dictionaries and correction fluid.
Imagine, sitting before a machine that was invented in 1860.
You would insert the paper manually, at the top, around a cylindrical platen.
The platen was mounted on a carriage that moved left or right.
It automatically advanced horizontally after each character was typed.
The paper advanced vertically using a carriage return lever.
Each key on the keyboard attached to a type bar that had a striking head on which the corresponding letter was molded in reverse.
When a key was struck, the type bar hit a ribbon, made of inked fabric, which made a mark on the paper.
Sometimes the ribbon was striped black and red with a lever that allowed you to switch the colors as you were typing.
All of my college papers were typed on my typewriter.
No one had personal computers then.
In fact, companies had computers so large they would fill up an entire room.
How far we have come!
If you needed to make copies of your letter or paper, it was a tedious process.
You had to use a piece of carbon paper, which was paper coated with loosely bound dry ink bounded with wax.
You had to put a piece of carbon paper between two pieces of paper.
Inserting all of that into the typewriter, you began to type.
As you typed on the original, the pressure deposited ink onto the blank sheet.
A carbon copy was made.
Today, with our personal computers, we are able to edit our writing.
We can correct, delete, and move text with ease.
If we need more than one copy, we simply change the number and click print.
If I made a mistake with my typewriter, I needed to use White Out.
White Out was in a bottle that had a brush resembling a nail polish brush.
You dipped the brush into the white liquid and covered the word to be corrected.
Often, you would blow on the page to make it dry faster.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could White Out our sins?
Just dip a brush into an inexhaustible source of White Out and brush it on the offense.
Make a mistake…White it Out.
Make a wrong decision…brush on White Out.
We would always have a bottle handy…just in case.
There would be the drying time…time between the offense and the erasing.
But we would fix it…all by ourselves…thank you very much.
Clean paper…carriage return…new line.
Begin again.
It doesn’t work like that.
There isn’t a bottle large enough to cover our sins.
The liquid would be all dried up before we even began to erase them.
Because they led My people astray, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. (Ezekiel 13:10, 11)
When we try to cover up our sins ourselves, we fail miserably.
It is a flimsy wall that will not hold.
The white out we apply to try to cover our sins, will be washed away.
Then, we are left exposed.
But God, in His grace, has a better way.
Clean me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.
(Psalm 51:7)
The only kind of cleansing that will last is God’s cleansing…God’s washing.
In order to be clean…whiter than snow…we must first be red.
Washed in the blood of His Son.
Washed in the cleansing blood of our sinless Savior, Jesus.
The Israelites, dipped a hyssop branch into the blood of a spotless lamb, and put it on their door frames, so the angel of death would pass over them.
Houses without the blood, experienced the death of their firstborn- both men and animals.
Houses with the blood were spared death and were saved.
“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” (Isaiah 1:18)
We need to trust in the thorough coverage of God’s White Out.
No need for brush applications.
No carbon copies of our sin.
Gone.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
(Psalm 103:12)
Forgiven.
Clean page.
Begin again.
I do remember all that– and when you made a major change like move a paragraph, you had to start all over– arg!!! Or just leave it the way it was, 2nd rate! How wonderful that we have computers that we can move stuff around, and fix typos and delete, etc etc– but how much more wonderful the blood of Jesus is, washing away our sin! What a perfect analogy! Thanks, Gina!
Janna,
So many ordinary things point us to HIM.
I’m so glad they do!
Gina
Beautiful as always!
Thank you, Jen.