Red and white

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18).

What’s your favorite color? Many people like the color of gold; for Midwestern farmers it is the color of a wheat field maturing in the sun, while for miners it is the color of wealth glittering in the dark. Other people like purple; it makes them think of opulence and privilege because it has often been associated with royalty. Black is a favorite color for clothing; black suits and dresses never go out of style.

My favorite colors are blue and green. I suppose it’s because I grew up in Wisconsin. Green makes me think of driving through the northern woods, trees lining both sides of the road with their branches meeting overhead. Blue reminds me of water—the sparkling streams flowing through the countryside and the waves of Lake Michigan extending to the horizon. Most of the pictures displayed by my screensaver are of forest trails, streams cutting through woods, or waves lapping at the shore—a cornucopia of greens and blues.

But for the Christian, there are two colors that stand out above all others. The first one is the color red—blood red, to be specific. Blood is a major feature of God’s covenants with His people. In the Old Testament, treaties were ratified by spilling the blood of a sacrificial animal. Abraham and his descendants underwent bloody circumcision to mark them as people who belonged to God. At Mount Sinai, Moses ratified God’s covenant with the Israelites by sprinkling them with blood. In the New Testament, Jesus died on the cross, thus establishing a new covenant between God and His people which was sealed with the blood of God’s own Son. In Holy Communion, Jesus offers us this life-saving blood through earthly wine, a miracle we cannot understand but which nevertheless offers us forgiveness, faith and spiritual strength. For the Christian, red is the color of our relationship with God.

The other important color is white. White is the color of purity. When the Book of Revelation gives us a glimpse of heaven, the people blessed to be there are wearing white. This is because they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14). When we belong to Christ, His bloody sacrifice washes away every stain from our lives and leaves us white, purified, dressed appropriately to stand before God and sing His praises. For the Christian, white is the color of our wonderful future, living with Jesus and the saints in paradise.