Covered and Transformed

"Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow"- Psalm 51:7 (NIV).

It was extremely foggy driving to work this morning. I poked along trying to make out the road and staying on my side when passing oncoming traffic. There was a blessing in it all: The fog covered the deforestation going on at the neighbor's house. Like a blanket of snow, all the ugly was covered, changing the scene entirely. That's what God's forgiveness does for us through the shed blood of Jesus: Our ugly is covered up and we are transformed from ugly to beautiful. You can white-wash a wrecked car, but you can still see the scars. Snow, on the other hand, covers it like a blanket. It fills in the scars, the broken parts, the missing parts, and makes it look the same as the snow-blanketed new car beside it. You can't tell them apart. God in His mercy did this, and it is grace we didn't deserve, nor earn. It is freely given to those who know Jesus as Lord.