Walk With Him: Our Wool can be White as Snow

Something you might not know about me is that I’m a stripper and a hooker. Yes! That gasp is what my Bishop did when I confessed my favorite hobby. Rug hooking in America started as a practical craft of poverty in the early 19th century. Working-class families in New England and Canada couldn’t afford expensive carpets, so women made homemade floor mats by pulling strips of worn-out clothing, rags and leftover scraps through a sturdy foundation, like burlap. Today it is a traditional form of folk art and there are hookers–making rugs–all over the world.

In addition to hooking rugs, there is the art of dyeing wool to get the desired colors for the rug designs. Beginning with pure white wool the fiber is treated with a chemical agent called a mordant and then drenched in a bath of permanent dye. Once dyed, it is impossible to return the wool material to its natural state.
Isaiah must have known this process as he used it in his magnificent analogy of forgiveness. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient… “(Isaiah 1: 18-19).

The Atonement of Christ did what we can’t do for ourselves. Because of Him and His Atonement we can repent and have daily fresh starts, do-overs, and new beginnings. Our wool can be as white as snow.

“Restoring what you cannot restore, healing the wound you cannot heal, fixing that which you broke, and you cannot fix is the very purpose of the Atonement of Christ.” (President Boyd K. Packer)

“The gospel teaches us that relief from torment and guilt can be earned through repentance. Save for those few who defect to perdition after having known a fulness, there is no habit, no addiction, no rebellion, no transgression, no offense exempted from the promise of complete forgiveness.” (President Boyd K. Packer, The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness, October 1995, General Conference)