Sidewalk Chalk - Your New ID

I’m intrigued by the way the application of various shades of color conceals flaws, whether makeup on a face, paint on a wall, or stain on wood. Highlighting and creating beauty magically diverts one’s attention from any imperfections.

I experienced a magnificent example of this one summer. We visited an outdoor festival downtown, featuring gifted artists using simple sidewalk chalk to create impressive drawings on the pavement. Some employed trompe l’oeil, a fascinating technique that tricks the eye into believing it sees 3D images on a 2D surface.

Any other weekend, few would have noticed that street. Most people would have ignored it altogether, rather than gathering to admire it.

But on this summer day some visionaries transformed a strip of smelly asphalt into a museum.

Unfortunately, those masterpieces quickly disappeared. Rain erased the bright colors and all that remained was a worn, black road, unremarkable to passers-by. Now street sweepers regularly remove accumulated debris simply to keep the route passable. But it’s no longer worth admiring.

Thanks to Adam, dust and dirt plague us all.

So does sin.

And for that we need more than a temporary cover-up.

Under the law, Jews paid for their sins with bulls and goats and pigeons, providing a temporary, short-term remedy for a perpetual problem. God issued a temporary “cleansing” from sin and disease through such sacrifices.

However, in one drastic case, leprosy–which symbolized the ravages of sin–God offered no solution at all. Animal sacrifices could not atone for it, nor could clothing conceal it. Once declared “unclean,” lepers left the camp to live alone, separated from friends and family, to protect others from this hideous, contagious disease.

The Jews shunned such disfigured people.

Except for Jesus.

Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” And Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And as soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. (Mark 1:40-42)

Determined to fulfill His purpose on Earth–destroying the works of the devil (I John 3:8)–Jesus radically touched a leper, miraculously evicting disease from the desperate man’s body.

An eager and outstretched hand continues to offer the Father’s gift of redemption from our hopeless situation. Like leprosy, our corrupt condition should legally separate us from a holy God. On the cross, however, Jesus completely eliminated the sinful state we inherited from Adam, making us blameless and pure when we accept His offer of new life in Christ.

As 2 Corinthians 5:17 confirms,