The visitor tried to talk of cheerful subjects, but nothing could divert her hostess from thoughts of the recent loss of her only son.
“You see,” she faltered, “though I have always known the risk of a fisherman’s life, and though his father was drowned at sea twelve years ago, yet somehow I never thought my Jamie would be drowned. I felt so certain he would come back to me! I cried when he went off that last time for two months, but I comforted myself by thinking the time would soon pass. Then I bought some wool and started to knit him a good, thick sweater for the winter.”
She paused to bring out and open a bulky bundle. There was the sweater—her son’s favorite blue. She spread it out silently on the table, but for a moment her grief overcame her and she could not speak.
Then the tears overflowed and fell on the sweater as she said, “It was ready for him, but he never came home to wear it.”
It was a common story, but nonetheless sad. Her boy had been drowned at sea, and every time she looked at the sweater, made with such loving care, she wept at the thought of what “might have been.”
Now turn from this sad mother to another scene—a joyful scene: “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues . . . before the throne . . . clothed with white robes.”
As we look, we hear the question, “Who are they?”
The answer: “These are they which . . . have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9-149After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; 10And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 11And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, 12Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. 13And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? 14And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:9‑14)).
That widowed mother wailed in her grief, “He never came home to wear it,” but how must the loving heart of the Lord Jesus be grieved when men and women willfully wander away in the “filthy rags” of their own righteousness, while He waits to clothe them with the white robe of His righteousness!
There is a robe of white for you. Have you claimed it? Are you washed in the blood? Are you forgiven? Are you living for God? Are you ready to meet death?
If not, trust in the blood of Jesus Christ, which “cleanseth us from all sin.” Clothed only with your own good deeds, you can never join the throng of the redeemed.
The white robe is ready for you. Do not refuse it. You may make excuses for not claiming it, but you can find no reason, and you will be “speechless” after you die if you are found without the spotless robe which is given to all who by faith seek pardon through Christ’s blood.