“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

Poetic thoughts have been expressed regarding the traditional Christmas candy canes…which say that the white can be symbolic of Jesus’ purity, and the red symbolic of His shed blood, which provides removal of sin’s stains.

The Word of God mercifully says that though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. And the cane is shaped like a Shepherd’s staff–our Good Shepherd leads us in the way that’s best for us to go.

Shepherds in the field were the first to hear angelic tidings of His birth on that special night. They immediately went to see the Christ Child, who’d been sent to be our Savior, Good Shepherd, and our guiding Light.

As children, we happily received the candy canes each year at Christmastime. Young or old, we can think of their symbolism when we hear the Christmas bells chime.

Turning it upside down, the cane forms the first letter of Jesus’ wonderful name….
He and His disciples turned the world upside down, sharing God’s love–believers today can do and are doing the same!

P. A. Oltrogge

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” Psalm 34:8

“How sweet are Your words to my taste,
Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way.” Psalm 119:103-104 NKJV

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” words of Jesus in John 10:10-11 NKJV

“Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.’ And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.

“But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, ‘These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.’ And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.” Acts 17:1-9 NKJV

Books of encouragement:

“All Things are Possible” by Christopher Alam (dynamisworldministries.com) and “Out of Islam: One Muslim’s Journey to Faith in Christ,” available at Amazon

And read of world-changing ministries at websites previously mentioned on this blog, a few of which are: http://www.awmi.net, http://www.kcm.org, http://www.moorelife.org and others