An Incorruptible Crown

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Tonight is a huge night in the world of hockey. The Pittsburgh Penguins will host the Tampa Bay Lightning in game seven of the NHL's Eastern Conference Finals to decide who will play the San Jose Sharks for the right to hoist the Stanley Cup. If you're as big of a sports fan as I am, you understand when I say that there's no bigger part of the sports year as far as I'm concerned.

If you try to convince me that there is any more prestigious trophy in sports than the Stanley Cup, you might as well try to argue with a brick wall. I can tell you right now that there will be no sale. There are several reasons for that. First, it's no ordinary trophy, but it's nearly three feet tall and is made up of 35 pounds of silver. Second, it has a history that no other trophy can come close to competing with. If you don't believe me, a quick Google search will reveal some of its bizarre experiences. Third, the winners have their names engraved into the rings on the Cup's base, literally etching them into the history of the sport. Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, it's unique. There's only one Stanley Cup, meaning that no team has a case full of them, including the 24-time Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens.

Well, perhaps a bit of an asterisk should be attached to that last point. While it's technically not incorrect to say that the Cup is unique since the same trophy is awarded year after year, there are, in reality, three Stanley Cups. Obviously, the original 1892 Cup is one. The "Replica Cup," which was made in 1993 is another. Its purpose is common sense. When the "real" Stanley Cup is on official business, the Toronto-based Hockey Hall of Fame displays this version so that fans can still interact with the prized trophy. However, for the purposes of this post, the third version, 1963's "Presentation Cup" is likely the most relevant.

It was in 1963 that NHL President Clarence Campbell commissioned the creation of a new Stanley Cup because he was afraid that the original had become too fragile to stand up to the rigors the trophy was subjected to. If you made that Google search I suggested earlier, you won't have to wonder why. Again, the decision was one based on common sense. If you have as prized of a relic as the Stanley Cup, you naturally want to take care to preserve it. Since its retirement, the Original Cup has been on display in the Vault Room of the Hall of Fame.

In the story of the Stanley Cup, we find that the most timeless of trophies still fall victim to time. Nothing lasts forever. Everything in this world eventually fades away. As the hymn "Abide with Me" says, "change and decay in all around I see." Eventually, this old world itself will burn up, and everything in it will be gone.

I'm not going to tell you that there is no value in some temporal things. I do some work as a high school sports photojournalist, and personally, I think there's a great deal of value in the athletic pursuits those kids I cover take part in because of the character building that can take place. Still, it doesn't last forever. In 100 years, I and the vast majority of them will have long been forgotten for our involvement, proving that point. What then, can we do to establish something that will last forever?

There's only one answer to that question. It is to live a life of service to God. The Apostle Paul used multiple sporting analogies in his epistles to illustrate the importance of perseverance in God's work, but he also pointed out that the glories offered by those sports were temporary. The crown won by ancient Olympians faded away, just as the original Stanley Cup weakened. However, a life lived in service to Jesus Christ will be rewarded with an eternal crown that will survive eternity. It will be something that we can cast at the feet of Jesus in thanksgiving for what He's done for us and be an everlasting reminder.

Ask any hockey fan, and they'll tell you that the Stanley Cup is special. I'm a hockey fan, and I think so. Still, even its grandeur and the glory it bestows upon those that win it are nothing when compared to an eternal reward granted by God Almighty. What kind of trophy are you working for? Is it temporary or permanent?

Whiter Than Snow

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Psalms 51:7

Very few people seem to think that they aren't good. They can easily recite the reasons that they believe they are good, and they always seem to have an excuse for their bad behavior. Truth be told, we all have plenty of bad behavior to make excuses for, and ultimately that proves the point that we aren't so good after all. Jesus pointed that fact out when He spoke to the rich young ruler: "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." In the Lord's case it was, of course, true. He is God, and He is good. That label however, doesn't apply to any of the rest of us.

By extension, the fact that we're not good means that we're also dirty. In fact, we're filthy at best. Isaiah 64:6 says that our righteousness is as filthy rags. If that's the best we have to offer, how bad must our worst be?

The fact that we are dirty means we can't enter into Heaven. That's a concept that any parent can easily grasp. Imagine a group of kids that have been playing in the mud after a rainstorm. They end up with mud caked onto their clothes and their bodies. Once they've had their fun, they decide to go inside, but their mother stops them. She won't let them in the house until they're out of the muddy clothes they're wearing. If she were to do so, there would be mud all over the carpet and everything they touched. That being the case, why would we expect God to be any different?

We see then that we have to be clean to have any hopes of getting into Heaven. Our biggest problem is that God's standard of clean is much different than ours. His is nothing less than perfection. White has long been associated with cleanliness, and as such, God uses it to represent spiritual cleanliness in the Bible so that we can relate to it. Snow specifically is used in the Bible to represent something that is clean. Freshly fallen snow has an albedo of up to 0.90. That means that it reflects up to 90% of the light that hits it. A completely white object would have an albedo of 1.00.

That means that not even snow is completely "clean." We therefore have to be whiter than snow. In fact, there's not a single object in the universe that reaches the standard of being perfectly white. Of all known objects in the Solar System, Saturn's moon Enceladus (seen in the photo above) likely has the highest albedo at 0.99. The surface of Enceladus is made of ice, which can be compared to snow since snow is crystallized flakes of ice. In other words, even the brightest known object in the Solar System isn't completely "clean."

Going back to the concept that our best is filthy rags, we see just how far short we truly come. If there's nothing in the universe that reaches the standards of pure whiteness, there's no hope to be found for us unless the only "good" One does the job for us. The good news is that He did. He came to this earth and lived the perfect life that we were incapable of living, and traded His righteousness -- His "whiter than snow" life -- for the filthy rags that we wore. In fact, He literally became sin so that we could be righteous.

The only way to get into Heaven is to be whiter than snow. The only way to become whiter than snow is to have our sins washed away by the precious blood of Christ. Are you whiter than snow? You never will be in your own right. A spiritual trip to Calvary to meet and trust in the Saviour is the only thing that will do it. The good news is, He's eager to do it. If you'll call on Him, He'll take you to Calvary and wash you whiter than snow.