Forgiven and Forgotten

This time of year brings daily facing and battling the swarm and piles of lovebugs outside the door. Sweeping away the live and dead critters, especially on the glass doors, leaves a mess. In desperation, I sprayed the door frame and glass with the house pesticide since they are pests. And it worked! The doors’ hazy, drippy-looking residue isn’t attractive, but neither is the barrage of bugs that gathers on them. We can now go outside without facing the cloud of insects. Soon the bugs will disappear, and I will clean the doors, knowing they will stay bug-free. That is until next year.

Sin’s ugliness is nasty and messy; we must rid ourselves of it before what is ugly gets “pretty.” Yes, God does the cleansing, but we must first humble ourselves before Him, admit our sins, and turn from them. Only when we bend to God will He forgive and cleanse. Consequential residues sometimes await us for our poor life choices, and we sometimes struggle to forget our failures. But praise God, our heavenly Father chooses not to remember His children’s forgiven sins; those are gone forever.

“For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. For as far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:11–12