Best stain removal remedy
Nancy Kennedy
It’s summertime, and for me that means wearing white pants.
My rule about white pants: Always carry a spare pair. Because mustard happens.
The other day, as I was out and about, I noticed several stains on the white pants I was wearing, which horrified me.
It wasn’t mustard — that’s my other rule: Don’t eat mustard while wearing white. I think the culprit was juice from a turkey burger I ate before I left the house and didn’t notice until too late.
But that’s neither here nor there.
When I got home, I went into heavy-duty stain removal mode, trying just about every trick I know. I spent two days spraying and scrubbing and soaking and yelling, but only managed to make the stains bigger and more deeply embedded in the fabric.
I’ve ruined many pieces of clothing trying to remove stains. Sometimes I’ll dye something, trying to cover up the stain, but that hasn’t worked so far.
Yes, I know this is a trivial, first-world problem and I should be grateful to have spare pairs of white pants in my closet — and I am.
But I really liked those particular white pants and I really, really hate having stains that won’t wash out no matter how hard I try.
One of my favorite songs is “Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder,” written by John (“Amazing Grace”) Newton in 1774. I don’t know how the original tune goes, but I like the one that Indelible Grace uses. It’s bouncy and catchy and the refrain is simple:
“He has washed us with his blood. He has washed us with his blood. He has washed us with his blood. He presents our souls to God.”
Another old song I love singing is: “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
Years ago, surgeon Paul Brand wrote an article for Christianity Today about the life-giving properties of blood, including its “miracle” cleansing properties, how it travels through the body, simultaneously feeding cells with oxygen and absorbing waste products.
“Blood sustains life by carrying away the chemical by-products that would interfere with it,” he wrote. “This then is the (condensed) medical explanation of blood’s cleansing property.”
He went on to liken the toxins in the body to sin: “Sin is a blockage, a paralyzing toxin that restricts our realization of full humanity, and forgiveness cleanses the wasteful products, sins, that impede true health, just as blood cleanses harmful metabolites.”
He said from a biological and physiological perspective, “blood as a cleansing agent makes perfect sense.”
“The Creator chose a theological symbol with an exact analog in the medical world,” he wrote.
The Bible says there is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22) and that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
We can’t cleanse ourselves of the stain of sin.
I don’t know why God decided that the sins of humans could only be cleansed by blood, only that he did.
And he sent his Son to do the bleeding.
In another old hymn we sing, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from (Jesus’) veins; and sinners, plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.”
He (Jesus) has washed us with his blood and he presents our stainless souls to God — as if we had never sinned.
As for my stained pants: I found the same ones online for half-price, and they should be delivered by the time you read this.Contact Nancy Kennedy at 352-564-2927 (leave a message) or email at nkennedy@chronicleonline.com.
