Covered

On the last day of our cruise, I broke a nail.  I didn't fret, I simply put a band aid on it, certain that I could repair it the next day.  True to my belief, I went to the nail shop to get it repaired.  While I was there, the girl informed me that it was time to "re-do" all of my nails. 

You see, these are my real nails.  I simply have a coat of acrylic over them to strengthen them.  The acrylic has gotten old and I needed to strip the old and apply a new layer.  This is done about once a year but it had been about three years for me.  I simply kept going in to reapply and fix the old acrylic.

I gave in and said "just do it."  I soaked my nails for about 30 minutes and before I knew it, all the acrylic was off and I had my original nails.  I must say that after they were stripped, they looked rough.  Sure, they were still long, but some were jagged at the ends, some were thin and one even had a hole in it. 

I thought "Wow, if people could only see the real nail, they would never believe the finished product."   As she proceeded with the process and applied the acrylic, it was transparent enough that although strong, I could still see the flaws.  The more she did, the better they looked. Then the final step, the fingernail polish.  I selected a pretty fall color that covered all the flaws and made for a beautiful set of nails. 

As I sat there and allowed her to file, shape, and polish my nails I thought of how sin is much the same.  We allow sin in our life and it is ugly.  Sometimes we just hide the ugly and don't bother to change it.  Sin changes our look, our thoughts and our actions.  We can try to cover it up but we still see it.  It isn't until we allow God to take control and cover our sin with the blood that He shed that we can no longer see it in us. 

When we finally come to Christ, when we finally say "Okay, just do it" when we finally give in to be stripped of our sin and allow God to shape us and clean us up and cover our sin with His blood, only then will we see the final product of forgiveness and renewing.

God gave His only Son so that we might be set free and cleansed from our sin.  Isn't it time for you to give in and bring your sins to Him so that they can be covered?

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us.  Psalms 103:11

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive our sin and purify us from all unrighteousness.  1 John 1:9