Tim Ellsworth

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

I’ve probably sung the words to that old hymn hundreds of times in my life. But it was never as meaningful to me as it was during our worship service yesterday.

I was holding my 4-year-old son Daniel. Usually, Daniel doesn’t sing much during church. He can’t read the words on the overhead, and he doesn’t yet know most of the songs we sing. Every once in a while he’ll pick up a word or a phrase and join in, and it pleases me to hear him try.

But he knows the words to “Nothing but the Blood,” thanks to a Sunday school teacher who taught them to him. So as we began singing the song yesterday, he jumped right in with gusto. It was a blessing to my soul to hear that little voice belting out the words right into my ear. And he was certainly proud of himself for being able to participate with everyone else.

Of course, Daniel doesn’t fully understand the meaning of what he was singing. That’s OK. He doesn’t understand the meaning of the Bible verses he’s memorizing, either.

So my earnest prayer is that one of these days – while he is still a young boy – God will enlighten his mind and warm his heart to the truths he was singing. That Daniel will look to the blood of Jesus as the only thing that will ever make him whole again. That he will find his hope, his peace and his righteousness in that blood. That he will embrace the beauty and the preciousness of the flow that will make him white as snow.

May God make it so.