Erase It!

Generous in love – God gives grace. Huge in mercy, erase my bad record. Psalms 51:1 from The Message

When our kids were growing up, one of their favorite toys was the red framed Etch A Sketch. This amazing toy uses two knobs that you turn, and you can draw vertical lines with one and horizontal lines with the other. If you turn both knobs simultaneously, diagonal lines can be drawn. After the picture has been drawn, if you don’t like it or want to make some changes, you just turn the red box upside down, shake it, and viola! The picture is erased.

It’s hard to believe that the classic red framed drawing toy, Etch A Sketch, has been around for over 64 years! We would probably all have to admit that it’s pretty impressive these days that a toy that doesn’t have Bluetooth capabilites, can’t connect to WiFi, and doesn’t even work on batteries continues to be iconic and have relevance today especially when children are increasingly putting down toys and picking up video game controllers.

This amazing toy offers the user a chance to erase all their mistakes or miscues and start over! It reminds me of the way God handles mistakes in our lives, in our nation, and in our world. He wipes the slate clean and “remembers it no more.” He cancels our past, and He chooses to forget our wrongs, errors, and failures.

This week we remember the twenty third anniversary of September 11. Our lives were forever changed on that fateful day, and for many of us, things will never be the same. We will forever ask questions such as: “As a country how do we come to terms with our suffering, not only as individuals, but also, as a nation and erase it?” “How do we erase the violation we feel by this tragedy?” “Is it possible to forgive those who seem to have no repentance?” Can we ever erase the pain and suffering of this event?

The tragedy of 911 is neither the first time or the last time we, as a people, will ask these and other questions. This past Wednesday, we watched in horror as a 14 year old gunman killed 4 students and injured 9 more in a senseless act of violence in Apalachee High School in Winder. The students who witnessed it referred to it as “an act of pure evil“. As we watched students gather on the football field for safety and to pray for their fellow students, teachers, and staff, we all felt that moment of helplessness and horror again.

It is human nature to question tragedies whether they come to us either as a natural disaster or through the cunning and evil of human beings. When acts of human beings are the cause, most people point to the fact that God gives us our freedom even to sin and do wrong. We can’t erase these events, but instead of moving backward into grief and despair, God would want us to move forward in a better way.

Recently a friend from Donalsonville sent me excerpts from an interview with one of my relatives, Miss Martha Nell Spooner. The history that she tells of our small town brought back so many good memories and taught me some history of which I was not aware. It also imparted some wisdom which I think is apropo for us today.

Miss Martha Nell is turning ninety, and she left the interviewer with these words: “I am ready to step out of this world, but I am sorry for leaving it in the shape it’s in for my great grandchildren. The things that are so trying take us to the absolute end of our rope, but if we could, we should just hesitate and accept that this is a test. These trials, these things that test us and try us, we can either give up on and become bitter, resentful and angry, or we can hang onto the statement that everything does work for the good. We can’t see it, but we have to accept it.”

It is up to us to try to erase the evil that leads people to do such unimaginable acts of violence. I heard more than one person say, “There if not for the grace of God, go I.” The scipture from Corinthians is a statement of gratitude and humility that acknowledges human sinfulness and the need of God’s grace. In the words of Sheriff Jud Smith of Barrow County, “Hate will not be allowed to prevail.” As Christians, we may be in this world, but we are not of this world. Love will prevail.

Our prayers are with all the families of those students and teachers who lost their lives and were injured. God bless them!