Well before Louis Pasteur purified liquids by heating, humanity knew that heat killed something bad, even if they couldn’t see or name that something yet. Historical accounts show boiling of water and cauterizing wounds thousands of years ago.

Just like germs, our sin isn’t always obvious. It lurks and hides, like bacteria hides, even in water that seems clean. We know that a good, hearty boiling will disinfect the water, and anything dipped into the roiling bubbles.

We can benefit from having our sin exposed and boiled away, too. We put anything on a burner, but we expose our wrongs to God’s love and forgiveness. Woosh! Up in steam it goes.