by Jerry Senn
Some time ago, while waiting to board a plane at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, a man spoke with a doctor and his wife. After watching several planes thunder down the runway and jet off into the fog, the wife said, “I wish I could vanish into space just like that plane. I’d like to escape and go somewhere and start my life all over again.”
She was young and attractive, obviously a woman of means, and yet she wanted to get away from it all. Why? Why did she want to vanish? Why did she want to escape? Because the stained hand of the past was reaching into the present and making life unlivable. (Geo Sweeting)
Many people today echo this same despair. Millions of people are driven by the haunting desire to escape. Others look for something to help them drop out, like drugs or alcohol or maybe just slide into depression.
Why do so many in our world seek to escape? Because they do not know about the restoration that God offers—’the joy of forgiveness.’
There are many bible examples of how God offers forgiveness based on his Amazing Grace. His love offers forgiveness when sin is sincerely confessed (1 John 1:9). Also consider what David says about the joy of forgiveness:
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin … wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow … Hide your face from my sins, and blot out my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me … Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit … O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise” (Excerpts, Psalm 51).
No matter what the mind and heart clings to, leaving us guilt-ridden, seeking escape, let’s rejoice in God’s forgiveness!!!