Clean

“Mom, I’m sorry,” my eight-year old daughter said.  “Don’t worry about it, we all make steaks,” I replied, mimicking my preschoolers cute, but inaccurate way of explaining that we make mistakes.  The offense was so small I can’t even remember it.  Perhaps it was from when she spilled a glass of water.  But despite the simplicity of the error, the apologies continued to flow out faster than the beverage from the cup.  “Mom, I’m really sorry.  I didn’t mean to.”  “I know, honey.  It’s okay.”  Two minutes later, she apologized yet again.  Not even thirty minutes passed before she sought yet another round of forgiveness for the same accident. 

Can you imagine feeling so bad over something that you keep asking time and again to be forgiven?  If you’re anything like me, you don’t have to imagine.  We’ve been there, kicking ourselves as we think “how did I ever let myself do that?”  Like a small child wanting to be in a right relationship with her parent, we keep begging our daddy for forgiveness, secretly believing we’re too undeserving of it. 

For he (God) has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”  Colossians 1:13,14, emphasis mine

The forgiveness of sins.  Plural.  Not just a one-time pass.  Not even limited to an hourly event.  As often as necessary.  We aren’t told only the minor offenses are forgiven, nor is our pardon based on the number of times we plead for it.  We aren’t part of this equation.  It is God and his Son.  They have chosen to forgive us.  Radical, huh?  So unthinkable that Jesus came to earth, purposefully knowing He would die to remove our sins.  There is no need to continue to act like a small child and beg over and over for the same offense.  Nor do we need to believe our actions are so grave they can never be forgiven.  Instead, we can accept the undeserving gift of God’s mercy and celebrate the great truth that in Him we have redemption, “even the forgiveness of sins.” (Col. 1:14, KJV)