The Nelson Challenge: Lamb of God

I've been following President Nelson's challenge to study the words, actions, doctrines, prophecies, and commandments of Christ every week. Here is something I studied recently.

Lesson #4

What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

...These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple...

For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Revelations 7:13-15, 17

Every Saturday, I exchange floral shirts and pencil skirts for a long white dress, the uniform of a temple worker. On one of my first shifts, I found an oil smudge on my sleeve, and another woman directed me to the laundry facility in the temple basement. There I was taught how to use a powerful stain remover. First, I had to apply the chemical, which came in the form of a glue stick, to the stain. Then, I had to place a white cloth underneath the stain and rub vigorously across the stain with a wet cloth. The stain would be pushed out of my dress and transferred to the white cloth underneath. 

Of course, I was in the temple the whole time, so the symbolism of that small event shone through to me. We wear white clothes in the temple because they represent the Savior cleaning us with his blood. He transferred the stains of our sins onto himself and purged them away with his power and his sacrifice. 

L'Innocence, William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1893)

Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, the lamb that was led to the slaughter and slain. He is gentle and innocent, as we are encouraged to be. It's no wonder that, with his divine and loving perspective, he asks us to feed his lambs, for he sees the true potential of the rough and the guilty. We really can be like him because of his willingness to save us and teach us. He is so patient with our shortcomings, even when we make the same mistakes over and over again. The Lamb of God wants to raise us up from the mud and the dust; he wants to clean our robes so that we can go on to do marvelous works.

That is what I am celebrating this Easter week: that I can enter the temple, the house of God, because of the sacrifice of the Lamb. That I can serve my sisters, both living and dead, because of the innocence of my Brother. That I can rise from my failures to become divine because of my Savior.

I wear white in the temple because I am continually cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.