Over the Christmas holidays, I took some time to clean my trombone from several years of tarnish. Over several days, I worked Wright’s Silver Cream over the different parts and pieces of the trombone. Because I leave the trombone out, I have begun to notice that some of the tarnish is beginning to creep back. Soon, I will need to, once again, run the cream over the surface and wipe the tarnish off. This is expected and something that I will have to do somewhat regularly.
As I looked at the tarnish creeping slowly up the slide; possibly due to me not cleaning well enough the first time—I reflect on how that tarnish is like the sin in our lives.
In our lives, there is a war within us. A war between righteousness and sin. There are times that the sin will win over and we need to be cleaned up. Much like the tarnish on the trombone, the longer the sin is allow to foster in our lives—the more work it will need to root the sin out.
We need to remember that we are free to confess our sins and repent of our sins when we find ourselves in sin. We need to turn to Christ Jesus—who died on a cross to pay the penalty of sin. We need to do this often—as often as we sin—so that the sin doesn’t take hold.