One day a young minister was being escorted through a coalmine. At the entrance of one of the dim passageways, he spied a beautiful white flower growing out of the black earth. "How can it blossom in such purity and radiance in this dirty mine? The preacher asked.
"Throw some coal dust on it and see for yourself," his guide replied. When he did, he was astonished that the fine, sooty particles slid right off the snowy petals, leaving the plant just as lovely and unstained as before. Its surface was so smooth that the grit and grime could not adhere to it.
Our hearts should have the same characteristic. Just as that flower could not control its habitat, so we cannot help it that we have to live in a world filled with evil. But God’s grace can keep us so clean and unspotted that, though all kinds of things touch us, they will not cling to us.