White Must Be My Favorite Color

What is your favorite color? My granddaughter, Katherine’s favorite color is purple. She has given subtle reminders for me on various occasions. Like the time I came over to the house and she asked me to pick her up. She looked straight into my eyes and said, “you so boootiful.” That was a shock. But they say “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” All I could say was “oh, really?” “Yes” she affirmed. Then she explained, “‘cause you eyes are purple.” I thought they were brown, but who am I to argue with a two year old. Shortly after she turned three she came over to my house and the first thing she said while looking at the walls of my den, “DanDan, I thought I told you to paint these walls purple.” With great disappointment she added, “but they are still white.”

What is my favorite color? I like them all. So my favorite color must be white. White has all the light in the visible spectrum.

Colors are used in the Bible to symbolize various things. In fact, white is found about seventy-five times in the Bible and the most frequent color in the New Testament. However, it takes a backseat to blue and red in the Old Testament. White is associated with purity, things that are good, innocent, honest, and pure. David wrote, “ Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7, NASB). It is also used to represent joy (Ecclesiastes 9:8); righteousness (Dan. 7:9; Revelation 1:12-14); etc.

Deity, angels, heavenly creatures, and saints are often said to be clothed in white. Concerning the bride of Christ “it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints” (Revelation 19:8, NASB). White is worn by brides at weddings to symbolize virginity and purity. Baptismal garments have traditionally been white.

Sometimes a baptizee was given a white robe. The saints at Sardis had a few “ who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels” (Revelation 3:5).

It appears the saints have symbolic garments of white in this life which they are to obtain from God. Christ told the Laodicean saints, “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see” (Revelation 3:18).

Those saints who have died in Christ are also given robes of white to await the Lord’s return. John said, “Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed” (Revelation 6:11). Later he saw the great multitude clothed in white. “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands” (Revelation 7:9). These are the ones who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).

To sum it up, to have garments of white for your soul, one must obey the gospel of Christ and keep oneself unspotted from the world (James 1:27). And one day these will be awarded robes of white to wear in Heaven for all eternity.

One day the twins at church, Jaylee and Janson, were discussing Heaven with their mother. Jaylee wanted to know when she goes to Heaven and gets a new body can she have a purple one? Janson chimed in with his preference, ” I want a blue one.” Jaylee then added, ” if He gives me a different color I will just have to deal with it.”

— Daniel R. Vess