Scarlet

This is a piece I wrote during Writing Camp last week. The prompt was to write anything that came to mind based on the name of a random crayon that you picked out of a pile of crayons, and the name of the crayon had to be the title of whatever you wrote.

"Scarlet"

Sometimes I feel like I live in a world where everything is black and white except for my sins: they are scarlet. Everyone can see them, people’s attention is drawn to them, because they are so stark and obvious. I imagine the black and white world is staring, wide eyed, amazed at my inability to conceal the blood-red disease that is my nature. The rest of the world must disdain me for my imperfections. Why can’t sin be beige or something less garish, less in-your-face, less loud, more subtle and able to slip by unnoticed?

The truth is, it’s my perceptions that are off. The world is not black and white. We are all scarlet, crimson with guilt. I don’t stand out because of my sin. If anything, it lets me blend in.

But there is something else scarlet that changes this picture. The blood of my Savior, Jesus Christ, that was spilled on the ground as He hung on a tree. He poured out His scarlet to set his crimson world free. It’s only through His shade of red that I have a chance to let mine fade, not just fade but be utterly erased, wiped from the memory of the eternal God, thanks to His eternal love for me, a small part of His Bride to be. A Bride whose only tinge of scarlet will be the glow in her cheeks as she glimpses her Groom, the King of Kings, who has made her clean and clothed her in white from the inside out.

Inspired by a Hymn

Last week at a Christian conference called Vision Week we sang the hymn "Within the Veil," and it inspired me to journal some thoughts and prayers about the song. That day at the conference we had been talking about the Holy of Holies, which was the innermost part of the tabernacle in the Old Testament and which was where God would appear to commune with the High Priest. In the New Testament, when Jesus was crucified, the veil closing off the Holy of Holies from anyone other than the High Priest (and even he could only go in under very particular circumstances) was spontaneously (as in, without human help) ripped from top to bottom. That miraculous event symbolized the fact that through Christ, everyone is now able to commune with God.

I've sung this hymn many times throughout my life--it's a favorite of my dad's, so we sang it often growing up--but I often get lost in the poetry. As I was writing in response to the song, I found myself paraphrasing each stanza and reaping even more from every line as I slowly thought through what the writer was talking about. I hope my ponderings of this hymn inspire someone else to consider just how rich the truths in the lyrics are.


“Within the Veil“: be this, belov’d, thy portion,
  Within the secret of thy Lord to dwell;
Beholding Him, until thy face His glory,
  Thy life His love, thy lips His praise shall tell.

“Within the Veil,” for only as thou gazest
  Upon the matchless beauty of His face,
Canst thou become a living revelation
  Of His great heart of love, His untold grace.

“Within the Veil,” His fragrance poured upon thee,
  Without the Veil, that fragrance shed abroad;
“Within the Veil,” His hand shall tune the music
  Which sounds on earth the praises of Thy Lord.

“Within the Veil,” thy spirit deeply anchored,
  Thou walkest calm above a world of strife;
“Within the Veil,” thy soul with Him united,
  Shall live on earth His resurrection life.


Quoted from my journal:
"Thank You Lord for this hymn. Singing it this morning I think I understood it pretty clearly for the first time. I hadn't realized it's written in second person, as if it's the author talking to the reader/singer. The lower case "thy" is me.

Verse 1: Beloved, your portion is to dwell within the secret of the Lord, within the veil, within the presence of the Lord. Your portion is to behold Christ throughout your life until meeting Him face to face and seeing Him in all His glory. Let your life display His love, and speak praise to Him.

Verse 2: It is only as you gaze upon the matchless beauty of Christ's face, which is within the veil, that you can become a living revelation of His great heart of love and His untold grace.

Verse 3: Go within the veil to have the Lord's fragrance poured upon you, so that you "smell like" Christ. Then, go out into the world to spread that scent of Christ to others. Go within the veil to Christ's presence so that He can tune the music of your life which the world will hear.

Verse 4: When your spirit is deeply anchored within the veil you can walk calmly above a world of strife. When you are with Christ, in his presence, your soul can be united with Him so that you can live out His resurrection life here on earth."


"And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.... When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, 'Truly this was the Son of God!'" ~ Matthew 27:50-51, 54