Power of Jesus Christ's Atonement

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Spiritual Analogy

I went to visit my daughter at college and volunteered to help with her laundry. She gave me six of her favorite white shirts that needed to be washed plus a few other items, which included her hot pink bathing suit. I thought since I would be washing her white shirts on cold that I would just wash everything together so I wouldn’t have to do two small loads. I have done this on numerous occasions and since I’ve been washing children’s laundry now for over forty-four years, I didn’t think there would be any problem.
 

Malfunctioning Machine

After the clothes were washed, I noticed the clothes felt quite warm. I thought this was strange as I had put the washing machine on a cold wash/cold rinse cycle. I put the few things into the dryer that needed to be dried and began to hang up the white shirts on hangers so they could air-dry separately. As I looked at each one of my daughter’s favorite white shirts, I soon saw that they were all covered with pink spots! I was so shocked and felt terrible panic! How was I going to tell my daughter that I’d ruined her favorite shirts?

Then I saw the hot pink swimming suit at the bottom of the pile looking rather sad, limp, and misshapen—the source of all the pink spots! I went to the washing machine to see what possibly could have gone wrong and found that the machine must have malfunctioned. The cold water was not working at all, and the clothes had been washed and rinsed on boiling hot water!
 

Oxi Clean

I hurriedly went and got the spray bottle of Oxi Clean, which I had bought earlier that day, and thought to myself, “I hope this works as well as it says it will!”

I sprayed the Oxi Clean on all the pink spots and let it sit for an hour. Then I began to scrub the spots with an old toothbrush. Some of the spots came out immediately; others were still there. I applied a second round of Oxi Clean, waited an hour, scrubbed again, but a few spots still remained on some of the shirts. I remembered an old trick for getting stains out by rubbing the fabric against the fabric, so after a third round of Oxi Clean, I tried doing that method. It worked! Finally, all the pink spots were gone! I hand-washed the shirts in cold water in the bathtub, since I knew I couldn’t trust the washing machine until it was fixed, and then hung them all up to dry. I felt so relieved and accomplished!
 

Red Like Crimson

As I reflected on this minor “miracle,” this scripture came into my mind:

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.
—Isaiah 1: 18

I thought to myself, “Yes! This is just what Jesus Christ’s Atonement does for us!”

Sometimes we mess up our own lives by doing foolish things, which we later regret and wish we had been wiser in making our choices and keeping the commandments of God. We then suffer the pain of willful sin. Other times bad things happen to us that we have no control over and we’re left feeling angry, violated, and depressed. We then suffer the pain of hopeless sorrow. However, the Atonement of Jesus Christ can heal both sin and sorrow. Just like Oxi Clean was able to do what it said it would do, Jesus Christ is able to do what He said He would do.
 

Healed

I know from my own personal experience that the power of Jesus Christ’s Atonement can heal us all from sin and sorrow.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:
yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
—Isaiah 53: 4-5

Little did I realize when I was helping my daughter with her laundry that her six white shirts and one hot pink bathing suit could help me better understand the sacrifice of our dear Savior’s loving Atonement.