More than two billion pencils are used in the United States[1] each year and most of them have erasers. That’s a good thing! The average pencil is good for 45,000 words. What’s the likelihood of writing 45,000 words and not making a mistake? Not likely! That is what makes erasers such wonderful tools. With just a few swipes, our errors are gone forever! Today there are ink erasers, stain erasers, paint and varnish erasers, and even computer erasers.
Wouldn’t it be nice if someone could develop an eraser that wipes away the mistakes we make in life? Get in an accident? No problem; erase it. Make a bad grade on a test? Erase it. Let a few bad words slip out of your mouth? Erase them. Sounds like a great idea, but I have yet to find the product. And there are no patents in sight!
I wonder if the Psalmist was thinking about erasers when he wrote his song. If you look closely at his words, it sounds like God offers the equivalent of a divine eraser.
For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our rebellious acts as far away from us as the east is from the west. The LORD is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. (Psalm 103:11-13 NLT)
Forgiveness is to our mistakes what erasers are to misspelled words. It eliminates them! When we come to God with our failures, he gets out his divine eraser and makes them disappear. We get a new pencil, a clean sheet of paper, and an opportunity to try again. God is very gracious with our mistakes. He wants his children to be very gracious when it comes to the mistakes of others. Paul sums it up very well when writing to his friends at Colosse: “You must make allowance for each other’s faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.” (Colossians 3:12-13 NLT)
Do you get the point? God brings out his eraser when we make mistakes, so he expects us to carry a forgiving attitude wherever we go. Today, someone is going to need an eraser—not the little pink one on the end of a pencil, but the forgiving heart that says, “Hey, I make mistakes too. I forgive you!” So when someone messes up, instead of pulling out our pencil and making a mark in our little black book for keeping score, let’s take out the eraser of a forgiving spirit and give them another chance.
STAY FOCUSED TODAY: Put a pencil with an eraser on your desk today as a reminder to forgive others like God has forgiven you.
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