Many of you know I enjoy quilting in my spare time. On one of my recent projects, I used a pen to mark the sewing lines for stitching. The color of ink in the pen is purple. With a little hesitancy, I began, thinking to myself, don’t worry; the instructions say the ink disappears in a short time after air drying. Trusting, I marked a section of the fabric and began stitching. When finished, I set the project aside. The next day when I checked the project, sure enough, the marked lines of purple had vanished, like magic! What I had failed to understand from the instructions is that sometimes, if exposed to cold temperatures, the ink may reappear.
After finishing my quilt, I proudly displayed the beauty on the back of the sofa. Winter set in and the cooler temperature invited me to grab the quilt for cuddling. To my surprise and disappointment, the beautiful fabric displayed not only my hard-worked thread stitching, but also revealed the once magically disappearing purple ink used for marking.
The Bible tells us that we, all humanity, have sinned; as hard as we try to avoid it, sin follows us around wherever we go. Like the “disappearing ink” on my quilt, depending on our circumstances, you and I can appear lovely in our human nature; after all, we are created in God’s image. However, the conditions of our world are hardly consistent, revealing the natural human condition, which is to sin against God and each other.
Today’s generation wants desperately to remove all evidence of history and current events that reveal the marks of the darker side of humanity. How I wish that just by demanding and saying the word “cancel” we could make all wrongs disappear from our world, but this will never happen. The “Good News” is that Jesus Christ shed His blood once and for all; the price He paid permanently cancels our sin debt before our heavenly Father and is ours for the asking.
Will you join me today in thanking Jesus for His immeasurable gift, the assurance of God’s forgiveness that doesn’t change with the shifting conditions of this world?
Sherry Sharp
P.O. Box 4233
Richmond, VA 23242
804-327-0710 ext. 6