I tend not to write with ink, and yesterday’s fiasco was a reminder of why. I was signing this year’s Christmas cards and ruined three of the cards. Two of them I wrote “Happy New York” instead of “Happy New Year”, and one I skipped “Merry Christmas” and went straight into “Happy New Year.” Now unusable, I had to toss them in the recycling bin.
Ink is permanent. Even so-called erasable ink can still leave a trace of the errant marks.
How like our lives. Our poor choices and outright misdeeds leave traces, too, sometimes so visible that it seems like we’ve completely ruined our lives.
But on this first day of Advent, there’s good news. Jesus came for us, to save us, to erase those inked in marks of sin, rebellion, and mistakes. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” And it wasn’t an afterthought, or an “Oops, we’ve got a problem.” God had planned this, right from the start, before he created anything. And it was because of his great love.
Today we can be thankful that Jesus carried out the eternal plan to redeem us. And he doesn’t throw us in the recycle bin – he makes us brand new, restoring our relationship with him as if nothing had ever marred it.