The Red Dot on the Page

What do you see when you look at this picture?  The red dot or the rest of the page?  Unfortunately most of us just see the red dot.  We don’t see all the clean, pure white surrounding that little dot.   A dear friend recently shared this analogy with me.  I’m sad to say that sometimes she sees the dot too instead of the pure white.  If she only knew how others looked at her.  If she only knew how much I admired her.  She would start to focus on the white and pretty soon, that dot would fade away.  It would get consumed by the white.

“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.”

Isaiah 1:18

In Scripture, whatever is white is righteous and pure.  If your identity is in Christ, you are righteous and pure because Jesus is righteous and pure.  He is our Intercessor.  When God looks at us, He sees His Son because we are in the body of Christ.  I have always found it very interesting that most of the people in the Bible have a sinful, red-dot past.  Moses killed a man.  King David committed adultery and had a man killed.  The Apostle Paul held the coats of others and watched while a Christian man was stoned to death.  There is not one person in the Bible, other than Jesus Christ Himself, who did not commit a sin.  It is impossible for us not to sin.  However, the blood of Jesus Christ took away all our sins.  We need to stop focusing on that red-dot because Jesus took that to the cross with him.  Train your eyes to look at the white.  Every time you start to focus on your old, sinful self ~ the red dot ~ think white.  Let’s be thankful that we no longer have to think about our sinful nature.   When you feel yourself slipping back to the red-dot, start singing the words to the favorite children’s hymn “Jesus Loves Me”.   This always helps me to redirect my thoughts.  

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.

Philippians 4:8