I was watching my two small children the other day and somehow one of them got a permanent marker without my realizing it, my daughter marked all over herself along with my little boy. To those that have had kids I'm sure this has happened before :).
As I was giving my two kiddos a bath to remove the marker on them the Lord finds funny ways of speaking to my heart which I enjoy so here is what I learned from this. :)
Sin like the permanent marker is quite permenant, when we sin we are stained by the effects of sin and are marked. As I drew the bath I realized that is what Christ did for us He drew it with something more percious than water and soap but His own blood.
As I placed my kids in the bath and started to wash them they resisted with all their might they didn't want to marks removed nor cared they had them. But they needed removed just as our sins need removed, it wasn't until they submitted to my washing the marks were removed. My daughter screamed as though being murder while my son simply said NO and tried to push away the cup of water I was using.
We react to the cleansing of God often either through tears and screaming or out right rebellion. But something I found awesome was when my son was clean he took great delight in splashing and playing in the water. He infact didn't want removed when the bath was over so I let him play. Once we realize the cleansing of God is for our Good and we realize the Love the Father has for us we can take great delight in staying in His cleansing power.
Just thought I would share this funny yet encouraging thought I had that the Lord shared to my heart. I believe the Lord teaches me more through my kids about myself and His character than any theologian I have read.