My son, who is in elementary school, loves playing in nature. Since he enjoys catching insects and fish, he always leaves the house in clean clothes in the morning but often returns covered in dirt and stains.
The problem is that if I put his clothes straight into the washing machine, the stains remain, and the clothes look as if they were never washed. Dark-colored clothes can hide them a bit, but on light-colored ones, the stains stand out vividly. No matter how many times I wash them, they do not come out easily, so I end up setting them aside in a pile until I have time to work on them. On that day, I spray stain remover on the dirty spots, soak the clothes in hot water mixed with oxygen bleach and baking soda for a whole day, and then run them through the boiling cycle again. After all that, the stains finally disappear, and the clothes become clean again—but then comes another problem: wrinkles. No matter how much I stretch and smooth them, the wrinkles remain, so I must iron them. Only after going through all these steps do the clothes return to a wearable state.
While removing stains, I thought about the process of being forgiven of sins on the Day of Atonement. Even clothes with only a small stain must go through many stages of washing and ironing before they are clean again. Then how great must be the sacrifice of God, who washes away all the sins we committed in heaven and on earth through the Day of Atonement?
When I think of the pain and suffering that Heavenly Father and Mother must have endured alone to wash away the black and crimson sins of Their children until they became white and clean, my heart feels heavy. I give thanks to Father and Mother for Their boundless sacrifice and love, for clothing us in pure and spotless garments and leading us toward heaven.